Random Shorts
by BlackSandHeart
Summary: A bunch of random short stories about your favorite Sonic the hedgehog characters and OCs! Please R&R and prepare yourself for a whole world of random short stories! Rated T because… hmm… you're going to have to find out yourself.
1. Chapter 1

**AN1- Alright, I felt like doing this so here's a bunch of rambling stories with ironic endings that I hope are funny. Anyways, enjoy and review! Also, special thanks to **_**raeweis**_** who gave me the idea of writing these short stories, she did it and I was like… "hmm… that's a smart idea…" so the idea of starting this belongs to her (go read her stories, she does amazing!) And besides I had a bunch of short stories up my sleeve ranging from horror, comedy, etc.**

**WARNING= this might take me forever to do updates so don't expect it to be updated all the time *cough, cough Shadow's Gathering, cough***

**AN2- this is just a short story about the Dimension Jumpers in their dimension on a typical day. Sierra gets put into the mixture, making this a lot funnier. Did not understand a **_**thing**_** I just said? Go to my profile and read my stories: Katherine's Tale, Dimension Jumpers, Day of the Dead, and the working in progress one still: Shadow's Gathering. You don't have to if you don't want to but it'll make a lot more sense on who these people are.**

**Disclaimer= I don't own ANYTHING that belongs to SEGA. These people belong to me: The Dimension Jumpers anyways, enjoy and review!**

"Get your butt over here, Xsus!" Katherine yelled. She scowled as she watched the young boy float down to the ground using his energy and Katherine used wind magic to shoot him back up next to her.

"Aw Katherine! Put me back down! I promised I would meet Cream today to help her bake some cookies!"

"Not until we finish this."

"This? But it'll take forever!" Xsus whined, scowling at the giant glass elevator on the tall white brick skyscraper in the front part of Light Givers' Square. The large square stood out far and wide behind them with a marble fountain with two statues standing proudly in the middle of it. Small shops surrounded the square, selling different items.

"Well then, you better get to work, Xsus!" Katherine handed him a sponge and he scowled as he started scrubbing on the glass walls.

Chase floated down next to her, holding a hose and grinning like a fool. "I rinsed the top part of the elevator."

Katherine scowled at him. "And you soaked Jason in the process."

Suddenly, Jason dropped down on top of Chase and the two tackled each other in the air and slowly floated towards the ground.

As Katherine watched them fall, Xerius dropped by and gave Katherine a look as she sighed. "Yes, Xerius we're almost done. You can tell Ria." Katherine said to him and Xerius flew back up.

"Seriously? We're almost done?" Xsus' eyes lit up like Christmas lights and he scrubbed faster.

"Aha! I knew I'd find you here!" A voice called out behind them.

Katherine spun around in confusion. "Sierra? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to ruin your party!" Sierra sneered.

"Get out of here! We're cleaning the elevator here and the last thing we need is for you to ruin it!" Katherine snapped.

Sierra grinned darkly. "But that's my evil plan! Without the elevator all of you will have to walk up all the stairs to get to the top of the building!"

Katherine gave her a look. "That's your evil plan?"

"It was last minute," Sierra shrugged and then pointed a hand over towards the building.

"No!" Katherine jumped forward but it was too late. A blast of dark light erupted from Sierra's hand and Katherine ducked as the blast hit the building, causing the entire thing to explode and fall on top of Light Givers' square.

Out of the rubble, Katherine pushed herself out and sighed in disbelief. She glanced at the fallen skyscraper and was secretly thankful no one was in the building today. She watched Sierra teleport away and growled angrily to herself as Ria, Jason, Chase, Xerius, and Xsus pushed themselves out of the rubble around her.

"Hey Katherine…?" Xsus asked slowly.

"Just go." Katherine pointed and Xsus jumped out of the ruble and ran towards the place where the Zap's Dimension Jumping machine was, squealing with glee.

There was a moment of silence then Xerius said. _"Well… that went well. Looks like we don't have to clean the elevator anymore."_

-XXXXXXXX-

**This story… oh just read it.**

**Disclaimer= I only own Xsus in this story.**

"Tails, I'm sure that something bad's going to happen to it." Sonic said nervously, glancing at the sky. "I mean, what if Mephiles is going to pop out of the sky and destroys it, or Eggman? Or Metal Sonic? Or Sierra? Shadow going haywire? Or somebody else?"

Tails rolled his eyes as Cream and Xsus ran by, giggling like the kids they were. "Sonic, I'm sure nothing bad's going to happen to it. It's just a machine, remember? It doesn't have a self destruct button so it can't just explode into the sky randomly."

Sonic and Tails glanced at (as Sonic called it) the insta-chilidog. The machine was known for making chilidogs instantly on the go and Sonic frowned at the machine as it sat on the wooden table outside of Tails' workshop in the warm summer sun. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. Nothing bad is going to happen to it, Sonic." Tails promised.

Sonic sighed. "I guess you're right."

As the two walked away from the machine, Tails laughed. "Besides Sonic, what kind of idiot will make the machine without a self destruct button blow up?"

Suddenly there was a loud explosion sound from behind and both hedgehog and fox glanced backwards in surprise as they saw Xsus and Cream, both covered in black soot, and stunned looks on their faces lying in ashes of the wooden table that once held the insta-chilidog… that was also nothing but ashes now.

"Sorry…" Xsus grinned sheepishly, his teeth seeming to gleam white against his now sooty black fur.

Sonic got to his knees and lifted his hands into the air. "Noooooooo!" He screamed loudly for the world to hear.

Tails sighed. "I stand corrected."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN- How many of you like scary stories? Well that's what this one is… it actually scared me and I'm the one **_**writing**_** it. Anyways, here it is:**

**Disclaimer= The Dimension Jumpers belong to me. SEGA owns everything else.**

Zap looked around, his eyes flashing like lightning as the entire group of Sonic the hedgehog and everyone else sat around a campfire. His eyes glowed in the fire and a dark grin appeared on his face, giving everyone around the campfire the chills.

The Dimension Jumper stood, his eyes dark and the grin on his face still. "A scary story? Hmm… how about the story of Lady Jane?"

"Lady Jane?" Sonic chuckled. "With a 'scary' name like that this story is going to get interesting quick."

Every Dimension Jumper gave him a nervous look as Zap glared in his direction before looking around at the rest of the group.

Zap looked at the blue blur once again. "Everything I'm about to tell you is one hundred percent real. The tale of Lady Jane makes children run to their parent's room for shelter, adults freeze in fear, and even the bravest of Light Givers shudder at the thought of the story."

As if on que, every Dimension Jumper shuddered. Zap turned his attention away from Sonic as Xsus whimpered and wrapped his hands around his ears, looking terrified. The other Dimension Jumpers didn't look any better.

"Lady Jane was a peaceful woman that was in about to be married with her handsome fiancé in less than three days time. She was beautiful in many ways with hair as soft as silk and her eyes were as bright as the midday sun…" Zap said wistfully. His eyes scanned the distance until he looked down at the group. "However, the lady's past was left unknown to her fiancé. She was in an arranged marriage with another man before him and ripped out his throat in the middle of the night for she did not love him…"

Cream whimpered and got closer to Xsus, her brown eyes growing big. Xsus wrapped his arms protectively around her and both stared at Zap with looks of horror as he continued.

"So… three days before the marriage and Lady Jane was hopeful things would go by smoothly. Her bridesmaids were ready, her husband was thrilled for her to be his forever and she was just as happy as he was… until that night. For that night she walked into her room and found a letter on her bed that came from nowhere and was addressed only for her. When she asked, the maids claimed they never sent a letter to her, but when she eventually opened the letter, all that she found were three words written in scarlet red blood: _YOU'RE STILL MINE._"

Amy snuggled closer to Sonic and the blue blur was too absorbed into Zap's story to notice or care.

Zap smirked as he went on. "Lady Jane was horrified about the letter, but she told no one because she did not want to ruin her special day. She tried to move on but those three haunting words were in her mind…

"Later, at night, the night before she was about to get married, she heard a knock on the door as she stubbornly burned the letter with the three words written in blood. Confused about why her maids would bother her at such a late hour, she asked who it was but only heard bedraggled breathing, like the one outside had something stuck in its throat. She went over… opened the door… and…"

Everyone in the group leaned forward with anticipation.

"BAM!" Zap jumped onto Xsus, who squealed like a girl and fainted, falling to the ground. Zap spun around, ignoring Xsus and pulling everyone back into his story as Cream let out a surprised yelp, looking at him in worry. "Lady Jane's dead husband was there to get what rightfully belonged to him! And in his bloody hands was… a… knife… the same one she had used to kill _him_ so long ago."

Zap had a dark look in his eyes still and a serious look had appeared on his face as he went on. "The next day, her maid went into her room to call the happy soon to be wedded woman awake but when the maid opened the door, she found Lady Jane on the ground in a pool of blood with her throat missing… dead.

"It says that she still haunts the area she was killed, calling for her dead fiancé and begging him to save her from her terrible fate that her ex-husband bestowed on her… she has been seen by few who wish to find her and communicate with her… but no one can really prove if she is really there or not." Zap said, finishing his very disturbing story.

There was a moment of stunned silence as Xsus woke up, rubbing his head and looking confused. After a pause, Sonic laughed. "Ha! Good story Zap, really good, but we all know that's not real."

"It's real…" Windy whispered quietly and everyone looked at her as she turned her green eyes onto Zap. "Because Zap was the one who investigated that very murder."

There was a moment of stunned silence.

Zap looked deathly serious as he looked over everyone in the group. After a moment, he turned around and walked off, waving a hand in farewell. "Good night!"

Everyone else in the group stared at each other.


	3. Chapter 3

**Song you should listen to while reading this: "Beautiful Ending" by BarlowGirl.**

**Anyways, this is my gift to BlackStormNomad after she wrote her two part story about Xsus and Kelly. She inspired me to write this… and it's not exactly a happy story… just warning you now. Anyways, thanks so much for your guys' support and hope you enjoy the story!**

**Ha… I laugh as I look through the reviews. There's Amicus when she used to call herself Guest. And there's Chaos when he used to be a guest reviewer too… haha.**

**Chaosthehedgehog= Haha! Answering to you like this brings back old memories…! Anyways, ha, looks like you've already started writing your story and already on story #3! I am quite proud of you, Chaos. Good job! Hope you like this story too…!**

**Guest/Amicus= XD I laugh at the old name… anyways, glad you liked that one! I was trying to make it funny and the second story… *looks back and shudders* was creepy.  
Zap *bows dramatically* "Why thank you."**

**Strife= *laughs at the explosion comment*  
Zap *smirks* "I have the habit of doing that."  
*pales while looking from Strife to Fengari* the Crystalline Curse…?**

**Rya= Zap *smirks* "And we already got a fan club up for me after those days… it's good to look back."  
Xsus *blinks while laughing* "A skunk?! Can I hug it?"  
No Xsus… you don't want to…**

**Raeweis= Haha, it's ok. As long as you reviewed, right?  
Anyways, haha yeah, that is one of the creepiest stories I've ever written in my life too. If it makes you better I wrote that late at night and was half expecting something creepy to pop out of nowhere after writing it… XD**

**Nomad= Katherine *laughs at Braelyn*  
Zap *bows dramatically* "Why thank you! I do try my best." *grins*  
Glad you liked the story! Zap is quite a good story teller when he's not being annoying… *smirks*  
Zap "Hey…!"**

**Disclaimer= Same old same old. I don't own Sonic and Co- they're SEGA's, I don't own Chaos- he's Chaotic Hedgehog's, and I don't own Kelly and Robyn- they're BlackStormNomad's. I only own the Dimension Jumpers.**

**Here's some help with how to pronounce some of the names that pop up:**

**Xerius= X-ear-i-us**

**Xsus= Xs-us**

**Nygo= Nie-go (son of Ria and Chase)**

**Sorro= Sore-o**

TIME= 12 HOURS 30 MINUTES

AREA= NORTHERN MOUNTAINS

YEAR= 13 YEARS IN THE FUTURE

_Xsus' POV_

I look back at it all… all the things I could've fixed. All the things I could've stopped. All the things I could've saved. Heh, the list goes on and on forever, sad as I think about it now. I'm twenty-three and I still regret things of the past. Maybe if I didn't always act like a child, maybe if I saw the signs before they smacked me in the face, maybe… maybe…

Maybe… a terrible word if you ask me, it shows living things what they could've done if this happened. What could've happened if they didn't do that or have done that. I hate the word dearly.

I shook my head, getting rid of these thoughts. I rarely think this darkly about things but it's the anniversary. Eight years. Eight silent, cold years and nothing really spectacular happened to me since then.

Well, besides becoming an adopted uncle. That's probably the best thing out of all of this.

Xerius, as he sat across from me with his arms crossed, opened a dark brown eye and glanced at me as I stared at the ground silently. He sat up and opened both his eyes to look at me seriously. "Something wrong?" He asked, using his real voice. He's starting to use it more than his telepathic voice. Just shows how he's slowly coming out of his dark past and leaving it behind, which makes me proud of my adopted big brother.

I wave my hand at Xerius. "Nothing, it's fine… just thinking again."

"About her?"

I said nothing and Xerius knew he hit home. His dark brown eyes matched with the dark brown spots splattered all over his body mixed with light brown fur. He opened his mouth to speak again when his ears suddenly twitched and he glared down the aisle. _"Sorro!"_ He called out telepathically to get the boy's attention. _"Don't annoy the travelers on the train!"_

"Sorry!" Sorro's voice called from the front part of the train and I chuckled at my adopted nephew. The boy was growing up fast, looking just like his father. Dark brown spots, light brown fur, the only difference was that he had his mother's blue eyes.

Xerius rolled his eyes and looked at me again. "Staying in the past isn't the best idea." He said to me seriously. "It's time to move on into the light."

"But I could've done something, Skarrow." I said, calling him by his old name, causing Xerius to flinch. I frown, realizing my mistake. "Sorry… but anyways, I could've done something, Xerius. I could've saved…"

"Staying in the past won't help," Xerius said as he crossed his arms. "Xsus… listen… it's time we both moved away from the past."

"You're obviously doing a better job than me," I muttered.

Xerius smirked. "What happened to that little ten-year-old kid that used to run around and scream out for ice cream every five seconds?"

I laughed. "Sorry, you know how I get around the anniversary."

Xerius nodded. "Yes… just relax. It's too late to change anything. I think Jason's going to get the kids some ice cream. You should get some, you know, to get your mind off things."

"Alright," I said with a sigh and stood up. I brushed the dust off of my jeans before walking down the train, struggling not to fall over as the train moved at over two hundred miles down the track, heading towards the mountains. "Pardon me," I mutter to the guests on the train as I push my way over to Jason as he sits next to Amy Rose; yeah, Amy, the pink hedgehog that used to chase Sonic the hedgehog around the universe, the exact same hedgehog.

Except, Amy looks older, more mature. She wears blue jeans along with a cream colored tank top, but she wears the same pink and white boots as she did so long ago. Everything else about her still looks like the same hedgehog I knew when I was ten.

"Hey Ames," I said to her as she looked over at me, jade eyes glowing.

"Oh hello, Xsus," Amy said with a smile then she scowled at Lizzie as she pulled out her hammer and smashed her cousin, Nygo, in the head with it. "Lizzie! Don't hit your cousin with a hammer!"

Lizzie scowled and crossed her arms, tucking her hammer away to who knows where. She has the same gift as her mother when it comes to having a never ending supply of those things and pulling them out— or putting them away— from who knows where. She glared at Nygo, her hazel eyes narrowing. "You got lucky this time, Nygo." She was a grey cat with small ears though, about the size of a hedgehog's. She had black fur that acted like hair that puffed up near the back before being pulled over her shoulder. She wore a white shirt along with blue jeans and black boots.

Nygo smirked triumphantly, looking like a double of his father, Chase. His dark blue eyes seemed to shine mischievously as he playfully pushed Lizzie. He had long ears that flattened at the end like a dog's. He had black… socks you could call them on his hands, feet (that were hidden in his own black boots), and on the tips of his tail and ears. "Haha! Your mom's always liked me more!"

"Well your mom likes me more." Lizzie counterattacked, sticking her tongue out at Nygo as he glared at her.

Sorro laughed as he sat next to Lizzie and then stopped short when Nygo and Lizzie glared at him. Sorro whistled innocently as I sat down next to Jason, Lizzie's dad.

Jason had Lizzie's hazel eyes but dark grey fur instead of light grey. He had long ears that pointed off at the end like antler's and he smirked as he watched the children bicker before looking at me. "Are you okay?"

"Never been better," I muttered dryly.

"Well, I'd buy ice cream for you and the kids Xsus but Amy doesn't want their lunch to be spoiled." Jason said, rolling his eyes until Amy punched his shoulder playfully. "Ow!"

Amy smirked while wagging a finger at him. "Careful, Jason, or I'll have to punch you again."

"Heaven forbid…" Jason muttered while showing her a playful grin.

I rolled my eyes. _Good heavens, some things never change_, I think to myself and suddenly, I hear the conductor calling on the speaker, telling us that we were arriving at the station I had dreaded for the entire trip. The station that has secretly haunted me for the last eight years.

I helped Amy by carrying a picnic basket as soon as the train stopped while Nygo, Sorro, and Lizzie argued with each other about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"I'm telling you," Lizzie was saying angrily to Nygo and Sorro. "If you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich you can't put on too much jelly without it sticking to your fingers!"

Nygo glared at Lizzie. "Well if you don't put on enough jelly then you can only taste peanut butter and then it tastes disgusting. Who likes just peanut butter sandwiches?"

"Well, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are disgusting," Sorro argued seriously, sounding just like Xerius for a moment.

"How can you _not_ like them?!" Lizzie said, looking at Sorro in disbelief and horror.

"What? I had them _every day_ for lunch for six years! They all taste the same after awhile." Sorro muttered as he crossed his arms and stuck his tongue out in disgust.

I laughed quietly before following Jason off the train. As soon as I was outside, I blinked in surprise as the cold wind hit me in the face. I looked up at the cloudy sky above our heads with a frown. The weather never called for an overcast day… I brushed the thought away and looked back as Jason helped Amy get off the train before helping Lizzie and Sorro. When he turned to help Nygo, the boy swatted Jason's hand out of the way and hopped off the train himself, resulting in myself grinning.

_Just like his dad…_ I thought with a grin and then blinked as I watched Xerius, Ria, Chase, Chaos, and a few others climb off the train.

"Finally," Katherine sighed in relief as she looked back at the train. Her sky blue eyes looked skyward before she looked at the others. She was a black cat with red streaks in her bangs and hair. "I thought I was going to die on there!"

"Oh?" Silver the hedgehog asked with a grin. "I thought you liked trains."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "Not when you're sitting next to an annoying hedgehog." She smirked and then poked Silver as he laughed. She glanced over at her brother. "And don't even get me started about you."

Chaos laughed at Katherine as he wrapped an arm around Maria Robotnik. "You know you love me, sis."

Katherine rolled her eyes but didn't object as she smiled.

Robyn took a shaky breath as she stood next to Sonic the hedgehog. "It's such a dark day today… I guess… it only works since this is…"

"No!" Sonic yelled, causing all of us to look at him in surprise. "No one think any sad thoughts. We're only here to celebrate her life. We're not here to be depressed."

The rest of us nodded and then started walking up the path, heading towards the town of Blue Water's cemetery.

-XXXXXXXX-

_"We are gathered here today to mourn a tragic loss…"_ The old dog's voice echoed in my mind as stopped before a small, grey colored stone. I stared at it silently as I put my hands in my pockets, my ocean blue eyes staring silently at the stone as the cold wind blew through my golden fur.

I had left the picnic early. The others already paid their respects, even Nygo, Lizzie, and Sorro… who weren't even born yet when she passed away. I wished I was there to hear what they said but I could just image what they'd said right now.

_"Um… hi…" _Lizzie would say with confusion and with a sheepish look on her face since she would think she was talking with a rock.

_"Hi… I heard you liked ice cream…" _Sorro would say quietly, worried that he'd disturb other resting spirits if he talked too loud.

_"'Sup," _Would be all that Nygo would say.

Well, they already paid their dues. Robyn had been crying hard after she paid her respects and I had the nagging feeling that I was next to be on the crying list today.

"Hey Kelly," I said quietly as I sat down on the grass in front of the gravestone with a sad smile on my face. Oh great, I can already feel the tears coming and the lump in the back of my throat that stops me from talking. I hate that feeling, but as I hold back the tears the lump in my throat gets bigger and bigger.

I swallowed the lump with much difficultly as my fingers absentmindedly picked at the grass next to me, pulling it up, off the ground before the gravestone. "It… it's been awhile… I know… I would visit more often but…" I stop to let the words hang in the air as the lump reforms in my throat.

Curse that stupid lump.

"I hope things are going well for you, bet you made it into heaven now… or if you're where I'm from the Council of Death sent you into the next life." I said quietly. "If you're in the next life then please wait for me… maybe I can… ch-change…" Oh great I was crying now. The warm tears dripped down my face as I gripped the ground. I closed my eyes and bit my lip to try to stop the waterfall falling down my face. So much for being a grown man now, I was crying like I was six years old.

I lifted my head to the dark clouds as more tears dripped down my face. My hand grabbed at the familiar, silver bracelet around my wrist—Kelly's last present to me before she died. I could feel the kiss she left on my cheek for a moment. "I'm sorry, Kelly. I-I'm so… _so_… sorry… I could've stopped this… I could've made your life more worthwhile but I was so naïve…"

I became quiet, staring glumly into the sky as the tears dripped down my face.

"IT'S NOT FAIR!" I finally yelled up to the sky and thunder answered my yell, giving me the comforting feeling that something else felt at least a small amount of my pain. "I could've stopped this! I could've made your life more worthwhile to live through…! You never left me in my moments of darkness! I should've… should've…" I let the word hang in the air before lowering my head, closing my eyes and sobbing into the ground.

"I love you, Kelly…" I finally whispered into the ground as the tears dripped off my face and fell onto the grass that surrounded the grave. "And I'm sorry… but… Xerius is right… it's t-time… for me… to move on. You'll probably want me to move on too, knowing you and how happy you used to always be. But don't think that means I'll forget you, Kelly. I'll never for-forget… you. E-ever."

I slowly got off the ground, the tears still flowing down my face as it finally decides to rain down on me, soaking my fur in seconds. In the distance I can hear the others yelling and laughing, trying the save the picnic from the rain as I stared at the gravestone silently.

I don't know how much time passed until my ears twitched and I looked back, seeing Xerius standing silently there. He looked at me with a look of understanding, as if he understood exactly what I was going through before nodding his head silently, giving me the silent encouragement I needed.

I bit my lip as I stared at him and he stared back until finally spread his arms out.

Feeling ten all over again, I ran up and returned the hug my big brother offered. I lowered my head and cried my soul out as the rain fell silently from the sky. Xerius said nothing, as usual, but I needed that silent encouragement he gave at the moment.

Finally, after what felt like hours, I stepped away and wiped the tears that dripped down my tear stained face, sniffing faintly.

_"Let's get back to the others," _Xerius said telepathically to me. _"But… I'm proud of you, Xsus. Good job."_

I smiled faintly as more tears dripped down my face. Xerius turned and started leading the way back to the train station and after a moment, I slowly started following him before stealing a moment to glance back at Kelly's grave as it sat silently underneath a Weeping Willow dripping drops of water from the rain as the sun finally peeked out of the clouds, lighting the place up.

_Forever and always Kelly,_ I thought to myself, quoting Katherine's words as I forced a small smile, knowing Kelly would've enjoyed to see it. _That's how long I'll remember you. Light be with you 'till we meet again._

**The End**

"**So tell me, what is our ending? Will it be beautiful? So beautiful? Will my life find me by your side? Your love is beautiful! So beautiful…" – "Beautiful Ending" by BarlowGirl (thanks Nomad for the song! It helped a lot with the story)**

**Please review… I don't know what to say… 'cause I'm trying not to cry again right now…**


	4. The Rise of Father Darkness 1

**Hello readers! *waves enthusiastically*  
**

**So, here's my next story it consists of five chapters *lifts five fingers to prove the point with a grin* and I put it in here because it is almost entirely an OC story. Sad, I know, but it's a back ground story that explains WHY Followers of Darkness and Light Givers hate each other with a passion. Therefore, this story happened before even Gerald Robotnik's great-great-great grandparents came around. So yes, this means this story's older than he is.  
**

**And, this means some of my other characters won't be in here. The only ones that you may recognize would be: Father Darkness, Zap, Windy, Grim, and... that's it I think.  
**

**Anyways, hope you enjoy it anyways! Thanks goes to Strife the Dark 152, BlackStormNomad, Cor Amicus, Retto the Otter, Chaotic Hedgehog, and Metalshadow1909 for reviewing the last chapter(s)!  
**

**Metal= Haha! Glad you like Xsus!  
Xsus *jumps around excitedly*  
He's a fun character to write too! And sad... I feel bad for making you almost cry but I needed to write that story... *sighs sadly*  
**

**Chaos= You'll be doing yours?! You're gonna write your own version of it?! Let me know when you put it up... it sounds amazing. And I made you tear up... I cried if it makes you feel any better about that...  
And of course I'm proud of you, little bro! You finished your stories! It always bugs the light out of me when I see someone not finish their stories... *annoyed look* Haha... they would have that argument probably why I put it in :P  
**

**Retto= You haven't read Nomad's beginning version of the story have you...? It takes place before mine and should explain a lot.  
Oh gosh while listening to PMD music like that you can't HELP but get close to tears. That would explain a lot about this *nods*  
And your prologue was amazing. *nods*  
**

**Amicus= Seriously? Cool! Haha ninjas... *grins while thinking about your story*  
Anyways, glad you liked the story! I was sad too if it makes you feel any better...! But yeah, I kind of like sad stuff too... depends on my mood XD  
**

**Storm= Zap *sighs* "Yeah, yeah..."  
Katherine *grins back at Braelyn*  
Xsus *yelps as he gets tackled by Kelly before hugging her- also crying*  
There there Nomad! *offers a hug* Don't cry...! We'll all be screwed if you do :P Anyways, you're welcome. Thank _you_ though for bringing the inspiration for that depressing piece of work! Thank you.  
**

**Strife= Lucy huh...? *opens tab for youtube*  
...*sighs sadly* and that was sad too.  
**

**Now to the story!  
**

_**THE RISE OF FATHER DARKNESS:**_

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sonic and Company. Everything else belongs to me. There. No more. Not doing it again for the rest of the story *sighs with a nod before grinning again*  
**

Chapter One=

Father Darkness growled as he stole a moment to look at the ground, watching a familiar blue blur whiz by, almost running fast enough to break the sound barrier. A small jet plane flew above, missing the Lord of Darkness as he hid in the shadows, refusing to show himself to the light. Sonic's words to him earlier still stung in the back of his cold mind: _"Why can't light and darkness just get along? You guys could accomplish so much if you just worked together!"_

"If only it was that simple…" Father Darkness chuckled as he turned and started walking away, his black cape swooshing in the wind as memories started playing in the back of his mind... before the Followers of Darkness and the Light Givers even existed…

-XXXXXXXX-

OVER THREE TRILLION YEARS AGO, OTHER DIMENSION:

Tabatha knew this was a bad idea as she hurried down the dirt road. She had to keep her orphanage running, and the delay at the marketplace wasn't helping. She knew by now that all the children would be hungry…

Tabatha glanced back, her quills getting in the way of her face. She was an Echidna, with a pale reddish fur and deep green eyes that made anyone that looked at her for too long fall under her spell of her middle-aged beauty. She carried a picnic basket tightly in one hand and was hurrying along, her white dress flying behind her as she looked suspiciously at the large forest on her left, the Forest of the Forgotten. Most people that went in there never came back out and the ones that did come out were never the same again.

The Echidna suddenly stopped when she heard a faint mewling sound. She frowned and then looked around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from until she looked into the forest and her green eyes widened in shock.

A small, black cat was dragging itself out of the woods, and it couldn't look more than three or four. Tabatha dropped the picnic basket and rushed over to the cat, actually going into the woods as she did so. When she reached the cat she saw that the cat was injured badly and its clothes were near tatters, making them almost impossible to tell what they were before Tabatha found it.

"Oh goodness," Tabatha muttered as she pulled the black cat into her arms, surprised on how warm its fur was as it mewled again pitifully, its eyes were tightly closed and the poor thing was covered in scratches and burns, like it had recently suffered through a fight that almost killed it.

Tabatha held the tiny cat in her arms while looking right and left, looking around to see if someone who could possibly be its parents were nearby. When she saw no one, she backed cautiously out of the woods, half expecting something to come out and try to kill her.

As soon as she was out, Tabatha struggled to pick up her picnic basket while carrying the cat in one arm and looked around again, but still saw nobody. She then continued her track home, carrying a half dead black cat in one arm and a picnic basket in the other, however, she entirely missed the black cat opening its eyes for a moment, and they gleamed blood red.

-XXXXXXXX-

"Tabatha's home!" Light called to the others as she looked into the orphanage. She barely had time to duck out of the way as a couple of cats jumped down the stairs of the small, two story home and opened the door excitedly, ready to greet the exhausted Echidna.

Light chuckled as Tabatha greeted the children, calling all by name. Light couldn't be too old, maybe seven or eight, but she acted older, and why couldn't she? She was actually a hundred years old already thanks to being immortal. She was a blue hedgehog with her long quills pulled back but she let a few of them hang in the way of her face, getting in the way of her emerald green eyes when she wasn't paying attention to it.

"Light," Tabatha called to the hedgehog, causing the hedgehog to look at Tabatha in surprise. "I need some medical equipment…"

"Is something wrong?" Light blinked, causing her blue ears to twitch as she walked over to Tabatha... then noticed the black cat in her arms. "Oh dear…"

Tabatha nodded as she gently handed the cat to the young hedgehog. "Take him upstairs so we can clean him up, please."

Light nodded as she carefully took the cat in her small, seven or eight-year-old looking arms and turned to the stairs before climbing up them quickly. She glanced back and noticed a pair of dark blue eyes watching her before laughing. "Alright, Zap, you can come help."

"Yeppie!" The golden cat named Zap cheered and he ran after Light then skipped after her up the stairs. He looked about the same age as the black cat in Light's arms, maybe three or four, but was actually older than Light was, reaching his thousandth birthday soon. Although, despite his age he just acted less mature then she did.

Zap opened the door and saluted Light as she walked into the room and gently put the black cat in one of the white sheeted beds, making him look like a black stain on the clean white sheets. She chuckled and ruffled up the fur on Zap's head as he walked over to stand by her. "Can you get a pair of clean clothes for him, Zap?"

Zap nodded and ran out of the room as the hedgehog bent down and looked at the black cat nervously. He looked pretty banged up with all those scratches, bruises, and burns. She quickly got a bucket of warm water along with a cloth before she started cleaning the wounds, getting rid of the dried up blood and putting fresh bandages on them.

A moment later, her green eyes lit up when the black cat let out a soft groan and slowly opened its eyes unto the world.

"Oh thank goodness you're awake..." Light said to him happily and then stopped short when the cat slowly glanced over at her. The cat had the biggest, yellow colored eyes she had ever seen in her entire life. When she finally found herself staring, she shook her head and smiled at the cat. "What's your name?"

The cat muttered something that she couldn't make out and Light frowned. "Um… sorry?" She leaned closer as the cat repeated himself.

"I don't have a name…" His voice was quiet, but it seemed to be hiding something behind it. Something that Light couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Y-you don't?!" Light leaned back in surprise, looking at the cat with suspicion.

Zap came back into the room carrying some new clothes for the cat. As he looked at the black cat, its yellow eyes slowly turned to look into Zap's dark blue ones. "Oh, hi! Looks like you're awake." Zap said, grinning.

The black cat only stared with a half dead look in its eyes as Zap handed the clothes to Light. "Here ya go, Light! Fresh pair of clothes, just like you asked for! They look just like mine though…" Zap muttered as he looked at his figure: camouflage army pants, boots, and a white tank top like the ones they wore in the army nowadays.

Light smiled as she looked away from Zap. "I bet they'll look great on both of you." She said as she handed the clothes to the black cat. "Here, put these on, and if you're feeling up to it, come downstairs. Dinner will be ready soon." She gently took Zap's hand in her own and led him out the door as Zap stole a last glance at the black cat as its yellow eyes seemed to glow with fear when they closed the door.

"You think he's going to be okay, Light?" Zap asked as they walked down the stairs.

"I'm sure of it," Light reassured him as she glanced back at the door. "He seems like a strong boy… just like you."

Zap giggled while showing a cocky grin as the two walked into the kitchen.

-XXXXXXXXX-

Tabatha handed all the children at the table a bowl of soup. There was a total of thirteen kids in this household, fourteen including herself, and fifteen including the boy upstairs. All their names were bizarre since she picked them for all of them, all these children were found as babies and they grew up under her protection and care.

Zap of course, had his named changed. His original name used to be Hero since he was found saving Light's life but the name changed when he accidentally shocked another child at the house named Titter (who would do nothing but laugh at everything that anyone said— serious or not).

Tabatha smiled to herself as soon as every child had a bowl before them and was gulping the soup down eagerly. "Alright, there you all go, Jasmine? No, don't pull your brother's hair."

Jasmine, a red kangaroo mouse, flattened her ears and then picked up a spoon to start eating her soup. She let go of her twin brother, Boston's thick red fur on the top of his head as she did so.

Tabatha finally sat down with a sigh next to Light and smiled at the girl. "How is our new guest?"

"Good," Light nodded as she took another sip from the bowl. "He says he doesn't have a name though."

"He talked?" Tabatha blinked in surprise before muttering to herself. "He never once talked to me on the walk home, nor did he open his eyes…"

It was around then when both Light and Tabatha noticed how quiet the other twelve children became and all were looking at the small door leading into the kitchen. Tabatha and Light glanced back to see the dark black cat standing there with his yellow eyes glancing over the group before resting on Light.

Light smiled at him before standing up, pushing away her chair as she did so, "Oh, hello! Glad to see you could come join us!"

The boy's eyes narrowed and Tabatha suddenly spoke, "Darkness."

"What?" Light looked over at Tabatha in surprise, as did the rest of the children.

"That shall be the boy's name," Tabatha said, not taking her eyes off the black cat as he stared back at her silently. "His name shall be Darkness since his fur is the color of such the thing and his eyes bring nothing but the fear that darkness generates."

Light frowned, not knowing what had gotten over Tabatha as she stared at Darkness suspiciously, as if he was going to blow up the world or something. Her frown grew and then she looked at the black cat. "Um… alright then, you want to sit by me, Darkness?"

Darkness nodded as Light pulled a chair up next to her and offered him to sit in it. He sat down as Tabatha did nothing but stare at Darkness. However cold Tabatha's stare was, the boy didn't seem to waver under it but after a moment, he returned the dark look to the caretaker and Tabatha suddenly seemed to remember what she was doing.

"Oh! Dear me, sorry about that, Darkness! Let me get you a bowl of soup!" Tabatha said as she suddenly stood up and moved over to the large pot. She poured Darkness a bowl of soup as Zap, who used to be sitting next to Light, glanced over at him.

"So, Darkness, huh? You wouldn't mind if I called ya Dark, would you?"

Darkness finally removed his stare from Tabatha's back before looking at Zap with a dead serious look. After a moment, he dipped his head towards Zap while blinking. "I wouldn't mind."

Zap grinned and held out a hand for Darkness, "Nice to meet ya then, Dark! The name's Zap!"

"Nice to meet you, Zap." Darkness said as he took Zap's hand and gave it a firm shake.

-XXXXXXXX-

_Six months later…_

Tabatha sighed as she sat down in the rocking chair on the porch outside of the small, two-story home. Her eyes glanced around the yard, watching the boys of the house mess around with each other. The king of the land had needed more knights for his army and was now looking for children as young as five years of age to become one.

Zap and Darkness both had decided to try to join, even if both looked three, both knew that they were almost a thousand years old, with Darkness being a bit older than Zap. The two acted like brothers, messing around with each other and giving Tabatha another white fur in her quills every day.

There was at least ten more days until the knights' test began in the closest village, fifteen miles away. The test would be hard, and Tabatha could only dream that one of them could pass. For the last fifteen years she had been doing this, raising children whose parents never come to claim for them when she found them on the side of the road. However, out of all the children she raised, not one of them had the chance to become a knight. But this year, it could be different. She had three immortals going in to try to assist the king, this being Zap and Light's first time trying to pass. Maybe it would change the tide of war with other lands and finally bring the much needed peace.

Tabatha sighed as she leaned back in her rocking chair. That was a wild dream though; who knew if that would even be the case? They could lose still.

Darkness chuckled as Zap suddenly lunged at him, carrying a sad, silver looking sword in his hands. It wasn't balanced properly and weighed heavily on Zap's left as he sliced upwards. Darkness lifted his imbalanced silver sword to block the attacks and both swords made a _clang_ as they collided.

"Come on, Zap!" Darkness said with a smirk. "I thought you could do better than this!"

Zap rolled his eyes. "You _know_ I can do better than this!" He held a hand out towards darkness as his fingers sparked with electricity. "When I use this against the knights they'll let me join for sure!"

"Oh really?" Darkness laughed after glancing at Zap's fingertips. "And what if they decided to wear rubber materials for that day?"

Zap scowled, "Ha, ha, very funny, like they'd ever do that."

Darkness gave Zap a serious look, but he was obviously trying to hide a smirk. "Are you so sure?"

Zap suddenly tackled Darkness and the two rolled on the ground, throwing punches at each other while yelling insults at the other. It was before long until both laid on the soft green grass that surrounded the home, laughing like fools.

"Come on, you two!" Light said as she looked down at the two boys after walking up to them. "If you ever want to become a knight you're going to have to practice more!"

"Aw, come on Light! Can't we have a little fun?" Darkness asked with a bit of mockery hidden in his voice as Light rolled her eyes.

"Not funny Darkness, now come on, get up! Back to practice!"

Darkness and Zap stood up and watched Light walk away angrily, her brown boots smashing onto the ground as they looked at each other with a shrug.

"What got caught in her quills?" Zap muttered.

Darkness grumbled under his breath. "I still think it's stupid that they rarely allow girls to become a knight. What kind of sexist place is this?"

Zap frowned at Darkness. "What do you mean? What kind of place have you been before this?"

Darkness suddenly looked away from Zap. "I've been nowhere else… just forget about it. Light is right, though. We should probably get back to training."

Zap frowned as Darkness grabbed his sword and stood up, brushing the dust off his camouflaged pants before pointing the sword at Zap. "Ready?"

"Born ready," Zap smirked and both jumped at each other. Another clang was heard when their swords made contact.

**And scene! Anyways, one chapter down four to go! What oh what could possibly happen next...? *smirks* Anyways, please do read a review and I'll see you around!**

**Adios Amigos/Amigas! *vanishes***

**AN- Oh and before I go a friend of mine (Lucky the Hedgehog) wants you readers to check out her story... she also wants to add that she isn't dead. *nods with a grin*  
**


	5. The Rise of Father Darkness 2

***turns to Windy while spinning around in an office chair* "So for Halloween my friend managed to drag me into a homemade haunted house while we trick-or-treated…"**

**Windy *raises an eyebrow* "That's new…"**

"**And I had a total Xsus moment while I was in there."**

**Windy *face palms* "Of course you did."**

"**What?! Some girl jumps out of the shadows wearing a Jason mask…" *looks at Jason the OC and continues* "…and creepily calls out: 'peek-a-boo!' and I couldn't help but gleefully call back: 'I see you!'"**

**Windy *sighs* "…anyways, welcome to the next chapter of the story, people! Thanks go to…" *takes a deep breath* "Rya, Metal, Strife, Anna, Retto, Chaos, Amicus, Nomad, and UFO for reviewing!"**

**Rya= FD "Oh creeper. You know who I am before anything interesting happens."  
Zap *walks by* "Because she's a fan of yours."  
FD *glares at Zap as he walks by* "What is that supposed to mean?!" *glares at you* "And no you can't call me that."  
Zap *peaks out from around a corner with a smirk on his face* "Go ahead and call him that! It bugs the light out of him… or better yet: the Darkness!" *smirk grows on his face*  
FD *growls angrily* "I will slice your head off boy!"  
Yes! *grins darkly* what could possibly happen now?  
FD "I get to rule the world?"  
No. No you don't. Not yet.  
FD "Yet, what a fantastic word." *annoyed look*  
Hola Hermana! Hasta luego! *waves enthusiastically***

**Metal= *laughs* Now THAT would be interesting. Probably wouldn't end well on their part of course, knowing Darkness.**

**Strife= Knowing Strife he'd just walk in and Tabatha would flat out call him Strife before he can say anything *grins*  
But yeah… that sinking feeling… *frowns* …you'll see why later.**

**AnahitatheMoonlakefairy= Ima callin' ya Anna. *nods* And no, Amiga, you can't change it no matter what you say. Zap picked it out especially for you.  
Zap *nod nod*  
Yeah who did say that, since you've already met half of these people already, cheater :D But you haven't met Light yet…! She's a new character…! *grins*  
*looks at Ceilia then over at Katherine*  
Katherine *shrugs* "It's worth a short! Let's go knock the lights out of FD!" *grins*  
*sticks her tongue out* Yeah you two lovers, get a room for the Light Givers' sake XP. But I will consider it, don't you worry! And thank you! You're a good writer yourself Anna!**

**Retto= New nickname for Zap: Zappio *grins*  
Anyways, yeah, interesting to think about. I always liked that Zap, Windy, and FD's histories are combined and that they are unaware of anything bad happening since FD wasn't known for doing any evil deeds at the time.  
And yes, lets. *looks at Xsus* Ready?  
Xsus *nods while gulping down the rest of the ice cream he was eating during the break* "Yep!"**

**Chaos= FD *chuckles* "Sonic does not prove any point to me whatsoever."  
Sonic *grins* "That's what you say, Father Darkness!"  
FD *rolls his eyes*  
Haha you should get an idea of who Light is thanks to the Grim and Terrance from awhile ago… *grins***

**Amicus= *laughs as you wave back*  
Haha but ninjas are awesome though so I can understand :D  
Yep! So FD and Zap are best buds at the moment (who knew that sentence could ever be created…?) and I love them being kids like Xsus so they seem naive and innocent, unaware of any war.**

**Storm= Zap *nods* "Thank the Light Givers."  
Katherine *waves back to Braelyn enthusiastically*  
Xsus *sniffing* "O-okay I-I won't…!"  
*Grins as you give me a hug*  
Haha, good is right, Braelyn. So Ellienne huh…? That is quite a pretty name. Hmm… I bet Ellienne was a good caretaker seeing how well Light and Zap turned out after all of this under Tabatha's cares. *grins*  
FD and Zap *about to kill each other and notice Braelyn staring and freeze with sword/axe about to slice off the other's head***

**UFO=  
Zap *points to his past self* "He's immature. What more can you expect?"  
Past Zap *grins triumphantly* "Aha ha!"  
Zap *sighs*  
Haha into a fight because they both like Light...? Possible... it all depends on who makes the first move first XD  
Depressing pony...? Lol well she sounds like an interesting character *grins* And sad! 1. they should play that game and 2. I feel your pain. Most of my friends don't want to look around much on FanFiction either... well besides Anna up there. She and my other friend came on here after I talked them into it so you mustn't give up hope! *lifts a fist triumphantly*  
**

**Disclaimer= *laughs* Oh you want a disclaimer? Oh okay… haha! No. *gets a dead serious look on her face* You already got one.**

_**THE RISE OF FATHER DARKNESS:**_

_Ten days later… Day of the Knight Ceremony_

Tabatha gently kissed the foreheads of all her adopted sons and oldest daughter. She smiled at all of them in turn as she handed them sacked lunches and dinners as the children left the small, two story home that hid under the shadows of the large weeping willow.

They walked along the cobblestone path, away from the home, out onto the dirt road before heading north, towards the closest town fifteen miles away. Light lead the way in the front, her brown boots making hardly a sound on the path as Darkness and Zap walked close to her. Their adopted brothers walked behind them, all of them talking about becoming knights.

"This is so exciting…!" Titter, a dark brown cat, tittered excitedly. "I can't wait to win…!"

"You might not win though," Grim stated seriously. His light grey eyes matched with his grey fur as he looked at the group around him. Unlike the others, he was a grey colored fox with a white stripe running down his tail and up his arms. "Don't forget, one of us from Tabatha's home has _yet_ to become a knight."

"The only reason why we're doing this is so we can become knights… but wouldn't that mean that we're helping out with the war?" Terrance said thoughtfully as always. He had yellow eyes like Darkness' but they were a lighter color, and seemed much friendlier. His blue, catlike fur seemed to glow in the sun as the group walked down the road.

Zap glanced back and quickly calculated the number of people that came with him, six boys and one girl, making it half of the fourteen children that lived in the home had come with them. He glanced up at Light as they walked along. "Do you think we're going to pass the test, Light?"

"Of course we will," Light said and she looked over at Zap then at Darkness as he glanced up at her. "Some of us have been training for years for this and the rest of us just have a natural knack for fighting. Why wouldn't we make it?"

Zap nodded, looking thoughtful and he became quiet as they walked along the dirt road.

Streams full of sparkling blue water were on their left and right and occasionally some of the other boys would stop to mess around in the water, splashing in it and throwing water at each other. When they did this, Light would usually just roll her eyes in disbelief.

Wildflowers grew alongside the road and the Forest of the Forgotten was on their left most of the time, looking dangerous and unforgiving. Along the way, Light explained some things to Darkness as they walked along. The boy knew much but he didn't seem to know a thing about current history, which made Light frown. He was a thousand years old, where had he been since his birth? Under a rock?

"So," Darkness said thoughtfully after a moment of explanation from Light. "Let me get this straight: there are seven kingdoms in this era and we live underneath the sixth king. None of the kings like each other and they send their knights and armies out to war with each other all the time, right?"

Light nodded. "That's correct."

"And…" Darkness said after a pause. "This Knight Ceremony is when the king himself comes to a town to have members of the town fight with the king's knights. And if someone from the town wins, they can become a knight?"

"Uh-huh," Light said while nodding.

"And, when you lose, you lose and don't get anything. But when you become a knight you are given the highest of honors and your family can live in eternal peace apparently, correct?"

"Correct," Light said and then got distracted when a gorgeous, deep blue and black butterfly flew by and landed on Darkness' ear. Darkness froze and went rigid, looking at the butterfly like it was going to kill him. Light chuckled as she also stopped and bent down, taking the butterfly off his ear by gently pushing it onto her finger and then standing up with the butterfly on her finger still. "Don't worry, Darkness, it's not going to bite. It's just a butterfly."

"But the thing landed on me…!" Darkness started to argue but stopped himself when he noticed the way Light giggled and gently tossed the butterfly out to the world where it then fluttered away from the two. Darkness turned his head sideways and frowned as Light smiled at him.

"See? Completely harmless."

Darkness' frown grew and he looked after the butterfly for a moment as the others continued walking, leaving him behind. He glanced over to the Forest of the Forgotten, his yellow eyes glowing for a moment as he watched the butterfly fly into the woods.

"Humph," Darkness finally muttered. He turned around and walked after his fellow adopted siblings.

-XXXXXXXX-

As the group finally reached the town with sore feet, their eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. It looked festive enough, with hundreds of cottages all around and children running and laughing all around them, all of them human.

"Wow…!" Zap said, his eyes growing big as he investigated the decorations lining the buildings. Large flags that represented the sixth kingdom were lined here and there, colorful steamers jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Shopkeepers had their doors opened wide and were begging people passing by to come hither and try their foods or buy their goods.

Darkness blinked as he looked around. He felt like a sore thumb as he stood there. All the other townspeople were wearing bright clothes and even their fur was also brightly colored. He was the only thing that was black in the entire town square. Even the children wore brighter colors and had brighter faces then him.

He scowled as he noticed some people staring and marched after Light and the others as they traveled farther into town.

"This place is amazing…!" Light gasped and then scowled at Titter as he walked up next to her with his hand in his lunch/dinner sack. "No! Titter! You can't eat that. It's not lunchtime yet."

"Yes, Light," Titter muttered and dropped the apple back into the sack Tabatha gave to him.

Zap stood next to Darkness and looked around the streets with him. "This place is pretty sick," He said to Darkness. After a moment

"Sick?" Darkness gave Zap a funny look and waved his hands to the people. "There is nothing 'sick' here! Everyone's festive! Not coughing and dying on the floor in miserable pain!"

Zap now took his turn to give Darkness a funny look. He finally laughed after a moment. "No, Darkness! It's an expression!"

"Oh," Darkness frowned and then suddenly noticed some musicians playing festive music nearby with violins, guitars, and with their voices. He smirked and glanced over at Light before looking back at the musicians. "Stay right here, Zap."

Zap frowned as Darkness ran forward and up to the musicians. After a quick moment of talk between the musicians and the black cat, the musicians finally nodded in agreement and started playing a different tune. As they played, Darkness walked up to Light as she talked to their siblings with Zap staring.

"Excuse me, Light," Darkness said and when she glanced back at him, he bowed deeply before her before holding a hand out at her for her to take. "Can I have this dance with you?"

Light's face was priceless as she glanced over to the musicians playing then down at Darkness as he outstretched his hand to her with a dead serious look on his face. However, he was far shorter than her and not only that but he looked three while she looked eight, those two things were a minor issue there when it came to dancing.

Darkness seemed to sense her concern and sighed before standing up straighter and snapped. Light's eyes widened as he suddenly seemed to change shape while in a cloud of darkness and when the darkness finally faded away, he was suddenly her height and looked about her age, eight or nine.

Zap's jaw dropped to the ground when he saw this and his fellow adopted siblings didn't look _any_ better.

"Can you take this dance now?" Darkness mused as Light blinked a few more times and finally took his hand. Darkness pulled her gently into a small ring where other townspeople had gathered. All were surprised by Darkness' sudden change of appearance as much as Light was and all wanted to know how this was going to end. Darkness and Light's siblings gathered around the ring of people, all peeking past the townspeople and whispering then giggling to each other like little girls as Zap stared wide eyed at the two.

Darkness lightly took Light's hand into his own and placed his other hand on her hip as Light gently put her hand on her shoulder. He gently spun her in a circle as the music turned into a more lullaby kind of tune and Light surprisingly caught along with Darkness' dancing style fast because she was soon pulling him to spin in a circle as well.

"Wow…!" Titter gasped. "Light and Darkness are dancing…!"

"Wait 'till Tabatha finds out." Grim started.

Zap blinked and watched as other people joined in and started dancing with the duo around the ring. He slowly turned his head sideways, wondering how the heck Darkness managed to turn himself into that age with such ease.

Darkness smiled faintly as he and Light let go of each other for a moment and clapped to go along with the beat of the music when Zap suddenly felt someone crash into him. He let out a wild yelp that caused Titter to titter like an idiot and Zap crashed hard into the ground as someone fell on top of him.

Zap opened his blue eyes after sliding to a stop and found himself staring into dark forest green eyes. He blinked and so did the owner of the forest green eyes and Zap finally spoke. "Um… can I help you?"

"Oh!" The owner of the green eyes gasped and then scrambled off of him. Zap muttered something under his breath and sat up, rubbing the back of his head as he found himself looking at a dark grey cat with a strange mark on her forehead. The cat stood up and brushed the dust off her black cargo pants that were tucked into her boots. She glanced at Zap and her face turned red as she rubbed the back of her head. "I'm sorry, guess I didn't see where I was walking."

Zap blinked and nodded as he investigated the cat further. She looked to be about his age, three or four. But she, like him and Darkness, had a surprisingly big vocabulary. She brushed aside some of her dark grey fur that acted like hair out of her face and Zap noticed a twig hanging out of her hair. "It's okay… what's your name?" He asked as he looked at the twig with great interest.

The grey cat frowned at him and then reached up with a hand, brushing the twig. She blinked in surprise before scowling and pulling the twig out of her hair, snapping it in half and dropping it to the ground before looking at Zap again. "My name's Windy."

"Windy? Who gave you that name?"

"Some lady named Tabatha when she tried to take me under her wing when she found me by the Forest of the Forgotten about fifteen years ago."

"So… you're an orphan…?"

"More or less, my parents have been dead for years." Windy said with a shrug as she looked at Zap. "I have a gift with the wind so that's why Tabatha called me that."

Zap grinned and jerked a finger to himself as he stood up taller. "Well, I'm Zap, and I've been under the care of Tabatha for the last ten years."

"You have?" Windy blinked in surprise as she looked at Zap. She looked at him suspiciously after a moment. "Uh-huh…"

"No, really! But anyways, why did you leave?" Zap asked her. "It's a perfect place for us orphans to go to."

Windy shrugged. "I'm not too much of a fan being kept under the rules unless I see them being sensible, unlike some of the rules she made… like bedtime at sunset? Heck no! And don't get me started on her other rules…! So, since I didn't like them, I left."

"But rules are what keep things in order." Zap said, scowling.

Windy rolled her eyes. "Some rules are too ridiculous to believe and have nothing to do with your future."

Zap and Windy stared each other down for a moment before both busted up laughing. Zap grinned after the moment of laughter. "You seem like quite a character, Wind. And you do prove an interesting point."

"You're pretty good yourself, Zips. Are you sure we've never met before?" Windy asked thoughtfully while also grinning.

"Maybe, I've been around for the almost a thousand years now."

"Seriously?! Me too!"

"Hang on, how old are you?!" Zap said excitedly. Maybe he could be older than her so he could rub it in her face like Darkness always did to him.

"Um… nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-three," Windy said thoughtfully and Zap busted up laughing.

"Haha! I'm older than you by five years!"

"What?! Seriously?! Oh shut up!" Windy crossed her arms and scowled, her face growing warm, "So what?!"

Suddenly, a voice called out, causing the two children to stop arguing and perk up their ears up to listen. The dancing also stopped and Darkness gently let go of Light before bowing to her. "You are quite the dancer."

"You're not too bad yourself, Darkness." Light said while smiling.

"Here ye, here ye!" A voice cried out and all scrambled out of the streets as a golden carriage moved down the road with a squire at the front of it, carrying a rolled up piece of paper and randomly throwing his free hand into the sky. He was human, over five foot so he towered high above everyone since the tallest person that was transformed into an animal was four foot eight. "People of this town! Here comes the king, ready to start the Knight Ceremony! All who are participating, please make way to the town square!"

"That's us!" Light suddenly said, seeming to appear next to Zap and was smiling at him. "Come on, Zap!"

Zap frowned and looked at Windy. "Are you joining?"

Windy scoffed, lifting her head into the air proudly. "Well duh, of course I am. If I wasn't then I would still be in the Forest of the Forgotten, hunting deer."

"You live in the Forest of the Forgotten?" Zap gasped in shock as Light started walking away and the two immortals started following her.

Windy nodded proudly before frowning. "But I never stay during the night. It gets pretty scary in there during the night."

Darkness then suddenly seemed to appear next to Windy. He nodded confidently while wiping invisible dust off his three-year-old looking hands once more, "Heh, nothing to it."

"That was amazing, Dark!" Zap said to him while grinning like a fool. "How did you do that? And… how are back to normal?"

Darkness shrugged innocently. "Oh, you know, I know a thing or two about darkness. I can turn myself into almost anything I want… but the effects don't last long… that's why I look like this again."

Windy grinned. "Wow, that's pretty cool, maybe I could learn a thing or two from you."

"Maybe," Darkness said, giving Windy a suspicious look, as if wondering where the heck she came from.

**And the second part of the five stories comes to a close. Well, now you know how Windy and Zap met! Anyways please do leave a review and I'll see you when the next chapter comes around!**

**Windy *looks at Zap* "And **_**that**_** is why this is my favorite chapter, Shocky. Because I'm in it."**

**Zap "Shocky?" *throws his hands into the air while spinning the office chair around so the back of it is facing Windy* "What kind of pointless nickname is that? It's the worst one so far!"**

**Windy *smirks***


	6. The Rise of Father Darkness 3

**Hi readers! Welcome to the next chapter…**

**FD "Of doom."**

***looks at FD***

**FD *shrugs and walks away* "You always have to intimidate the readers at least once a day."**

**Anyways, thanks to the majority of the Ohana, Metal, and Anna for reviewing!**

**Strife= Ohmigosh I don't recall laughing so hard before while reading a review haha! Probably wasn't the best idea to do that though. Staying up late with candy… nooooot a good idea—haha but it was still funny.  
Darkness *scoffs while sticking his nose in the air and crossing his arms* "Why would I be related to him?"  
*annoyed look and throws a sword at Darkness***

**AnnaBannana= Zap "I decided to answer this for the author—just because I felt like bugging you again Anna. Anyways, so, you seem to be liking the story more and more, which is good."  
Windy *whispers* "You're welcome!"  
Zap *glares at Windy then at you* "Oh I **_**hope**_** it doesn't explode in your face when you 'zap' something in the microwave."**

**Amicus= *grins as you spin* I love those things too! I always try to spin my sisters as fast as I can to see if I can get them sick… :P And glad you liked that part! I loved writing it…!  
Grim *blinks as he gets poked in surprise* "Oh… hello Amicus."  
Darkness "I'm not scared of butterflies…!" *annoyed look*  
Windy *laughs as you poke her* "Hello Amicus! And here's Waldo!" *pulls him out of a bowling ball sack* "Don't know why he was in here though…"**

**Metal= *nod nod* Yes, yes… although it depends on what **_**kind**_** of cheese. *nods again*  
Windy *annoyed look and gives it to Xsus* "I think he deserves the trophy."  
Xsus "Yay! Clumsiness trophy!"  
Aw Windy! Not nice!  
Windy *laughs* "Sorry! Sorry…!"**

**Chaos= By the Alvainians the time you review sometimes…  
FD "Sonic does **_**not**_** have a point."  
Sonic *chuckles* "Yes I do…!"  
So yeah! That's how they met… and I don't know! Why do you get the bad feeling of something bad's going to happen…? *grins then wipes it off her face quickly***

**Storm= Xsus *sniffs and nods again while wiping more tears away* "Sad…"  
Ah! Okay looks like I'll read that story next soon… when I get time again *laughs weakly with a sigh*  
Zap *looks at FD then at the floor with a sigh* "Fine."  
FD "I do not have a care for this carpet." *glares at Braelyn***

**Retto= And now the nickname count is 22! Dang that's a lot when you really think about it… all for one person.  
Xsus *nods and then gets into a defensive position before finally blasting a beam of white energy at you***

**UFO= Haha yes! The king! Now what will happen next…?  
FD "I do not."  
Sierra "Don't get into that argument…! It's a bad one to get into."  
FD *looks at Sierra* "Do not order me around."  
Sierra *blinks and walks away*  
Zap *sighs* "Well things can change people…"  
That's the spirit! Don't give up… *notices that you teleported away before frowning* …well there he goes.**

**Rya= FD "Do not call me Darkie…" *annoyed look*  
Agreed! *shakes head slowly*  
Heck yeah! *lifts fist into the air before frowning* How 'bout we take over with… sharpies? Oh! And then we'll sell it on Ebay.  
FD *face palms at both of us* "No. I'm not scared of butterflies."  
Si! Si! Pero… yo no bien a el espano. XD  
Windy "Yes! I'm a favored character!" *laughs and looks at Zap before pulling out a paper for you to see* "This paper has a whole list of them!"  
Zap *reaches for the paper* "Give me that…!"  
Windy *laughs and holds the paper away* "You can't have it…!"**

**Disclaimer= *face palms and gives an annoyed look* No. Once wasn't good enough for you, eh?**

**THE RISE OF FATHER DARKNESS:**

_The Knight Ceremony…_

Darkness, Light, Windy, and Zap all sat nervously on the wooden bench. They had watched others try to defeat the only knight the king had brought forth so far for the townspeople to face, but all had failed miserably. Then again, it might be because the knight fighting the newbies this year was ranked as a commander.

_It's not fair…_ Light thought to herself as she watched the commander in shining white armor fight. He looked like a panther, with dark fur that stuck out of the chinks of his armor, along with his tail. The panther's golden eyes glowed underneath his pointed helmet as he knocked over his opponent, named Jimmy if she remembered correctly, around on the small stadium. Light's eyes drifted down to the stadium the two fought on._ Not only do we have to fight a commander to become a knight, but we also have to fight him on that rickety old thing._

The challenge was to knock the opponent off the stadium, which seemed easy enough. But, in fact it wasn't. The stadium was suspended over the large well in the center of the town, hanging only by six thick ropes that kept the stadium from toppling into the well. The people that were trying to become a knight were able to grab a weapon on the weapons rack outside of the stadium before balancing precariously across one of the ropes towards the commander then try to knock him off. So far, only one person out of the twenty people so far managed to make it _onto_ the stadium. Not only that, but a tall gate stood around the stadium to avoid people from the crowd to jump in and help.

Light had watched in horror as her other siblings had fallen off the stadium and into the well before being taken out by rescue crews and dragged off to a nearby medical center. Falling thirty feet into water isn't exactly a joyride. This almost seemed inhumane.

The commander let out a laugh as poor Jimmy finally fell into the well. He then turned his attention to the king as soon as he heard Jimmy splash into the water far below with a cry of pain. "Haha! This is too easy! My lord, can we make this more challenging and allow the remaining victims to team up so _I_ can have a bit more of a challenge?"

Light gritted her teeth angrily as she glanced over to the King of the Sixth Kingdom along with everyone else. The king was an old looking lion, who was quite fat and wore velvet red robes. He wore big black boots with heels on them (yes, at this time it was the sign of someone important and no they were not high heels, think pilgrim times). The king scratched his mane as the crowd booed angrily. They were all thinking about how unfair it was for the last twenty people who had tried to defeat the commander by themselves—only to have the rules changed on them now.

"Go ahead, Commander Demon…" The king murmured after a moment.

The crowd booed louder but the king didn't seem to hear them as the next two names were called out from the four remaining fighters on the bench: Zap and Windy.

"Oh by the gods, please help…!" Windy begged, clasping her hands together as she stood up. She glanced over at Zap with a frown and the two started walking towards the weapons rack.

Light lifted a hand desperately towards Zap and then sighed, looking away as Darkness' eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Darkness wondered how this was going to play out, Windy and Zap had only known each other only for the last hour. How they were going to be able to work together to win this was a mystery to him.

Windy looked at the weapons and then her frown deepened as Zap grabbed a large sword. "Why do you need that? Can't you use your energy?"

Zap shrugged. "All I can do is electrocute people. And that stadium is made of anything _but_ metal."

Windy rolled her eyes. "No, I meant Light Energy."

"Light… what?"

"Here: just imagine all your energy surrounding you… then just go with the flow." Windy said with a grin.

"Imagine… that?"

"Yeah!"

"Does it even work?" Zap asked doubtfully, like he couldn't believe there was such a thing as this.

Windy smirked and shook her head. "Look, just try it out when we get close to the stadium. If you can use Light Energy like I can then you don't have to worry about getting in my way and I won't have to worry about you messing me up."

"What if you get in _my_ way though Windy?"

"It goes both ways, now come on, everyone's staring." Windy said as she turned around. Zap looked at his sword with a frown before putting it back on the weapons rack and advancing towards the stadium with the cat, resulting in sudden mutterings in the dead serious crowd.

"Why did he do that?!" Light gasped. "He's going to get himself killed without a weapon!"

Darkness frowned and laced his hands together, saying nothing. Light glanced over at him fearfully then back over at Zap and Windy as they both walked through the gates. As soon as they were inside, the gates smashed close behind them with a loud, echoing _clang_ that made the gate surrounding the well tremble.

"What the heck am I doing, I just walked in here without a weapon." Zap said suddenly, blinking, like he just realized this.

"Don't worry, Zappy Boy! We'll do fine!" Windy smirked.

Zap scowled. "Don't call me that!"

"Alright, Zips, whatever you want, now come on. Let's go win ourselves the title of being a knight! Oh… and don't forget, go with the flow!" Windy said with a grin. She quickly ran to the other side of the stadium/well, leaving Zap alone as he started to climb onto the ridge of the well.

"Children?" Commander Demon mused as Windy scrambled on top of the well, directly across from Zap as he pulled himself onto the top of the well too. Both looked small and weak on the edges of the well as Demon chuckled. "I thought that only children five and older could attend."

"Try again," Windy said with a smirk while crossing her arms. "We're almost a thousand years old."

Darkness smirked as Demon shrugged his shoulders, obviously not caring how old they were. "No matter! You two are still look like children and I will destroy you both quickly!"

Windy clenched her fists with a smirk. "Think again!" She concentrated with a frown on her face and suddenly started glowing with bright white energy that seemed to lick off her body like white flames, emitting shocked gasps from the crowd.

_Hmmm…_Darkness thought as he watched Windy move over to stand before one of the ropes keeping the stadium from toppling into the well.

Zap blinked in surprise as he watched Windy start to walk across the thick rope, glowing with white energy. Zap then looked down at his hands with a frown on his face. Windy's words echoed in his mind for a moment as he stared at them: _"Here: just imagine all your energy surrounding you… then just go with the flow."_

"Go with the flow…" Zap muttered and he started concentrating all of his energy to appear in his hands. After a moment, he blinked when he saw white energy forming into something in his hands but he refused to stop concentrating. The white energy slowly became brighter and suddenly transformed into a glowing white sword in his hands. Zap's eyes widened with interest as he lifted the sword and then pointed it at the commander. "Ha! Now it is time to see the tables turn!"

Zap then jumped towards the commander, an impressive leap for a normal looking three or four year old since the gap was about eight feet across. Even simply running and jumping across the gap was no simple matter with the sides of the well in the way. However, with a bit of Light Energy, Zap managed to carry himself across the gap and he landed gently on the wooden planks before his ears twitched and he ducked as Demon threw a fist in his direction.

Windy, on the other hand, managed to stumble the rest of the way across the rope before letting out a sigh of relief when she made it onto the stadium. She watched for a moment as Demon struggled to kick, punch, or do anything to knock Zap off the stadium but Zap nimbly avoided all blows.

As they fought, Windy concentrated all her energy into her hand, and soon was holding her own white sword as she herself stopped glowing with Light Energy.

"Alright, now to end this, ready Zap?!" Windy called as Commander Demon spun around in surprise to look at her.

"How…?!" Demon started to say but stopped cold when Zap suddenly jumped forward and slashed at Demon's feet. Demon let out a cry and fell to the ground as Windy and Zap both grinned at each other triumphantly.

"Why you…!" Demon suddenly grabbed both Zap and Windy's shoes before lifting them into the air and smashing them into the ground, releasing cries from both of them.

"Zap!" Light cried as she stood up.

"He'll be fine," Darkness said, closing his yellow eyes as he said this.

"How do you know?"

"I just do, they'll be fine."

Light bit her lip and still continued to fear for Zap's safely, regardless to what Darkness said. The black cat next to her opened an eye and frowned at Light before closing it again.

Zap growled and released a volt of electricity from his body without much thought, shocking Demon… and sadly also Windy. Windy let out a cry along with Demon as Demon let go of both of them and Zap jumped to his feet then over Demon to Windy.

"Are you okay?! I'm so sorry!" Zap said as he bent down next to her.

"Don't be an idiot!" Windy snapped while slowly getting to her feet. She tried to smooth her fur that stood on end, thanks to being shocked. "We have to knock him over to win this! We can't just mess around to see if the other's okay!"

Demon stumbled to his feet, hissing as he glared at the two children. "You two have been a thorn in my side!" He lunged forward and picked both of them up by the back of their shirts while the two were distracted about Zap asking if Windy was alright. As he picked them up, he left them dangling in midair as he lifted them over to the edge of the stadium. "Prepare to lose!"

"No!" Windy cried while struggling in Demon's grip and Zap looked down at the cold water far below them, trying to figure a way out of this and not panic. He glanced over at Windy after a moment of thought and grinned as an idea finally flashed through his mind.

"Didn't you say you had some type of wind ability?"

"Yes why?" Windy said as she stopped struggling to look over at him in confusion.

"Well, now might be a good time to use it!" Zap cried as Demon lifted them into the air and threw them down into the well with all his might.

The duo spun head over heels as Windy opened her hands and concentrated, her sword dissolving into thin air as she did so. After a moment of silence, while Zap screamed bloody murder next to Windy, a blast of wind suddenly flew down from the sky above and the wind seemed to surround them, slowly stopping their fall then pushing them back up to the surface.

Demon on the other hand chuckled, lifting his fists into the air for victory while the crowd shook their heads sadly. "I am still victorious!"

There was a moment of silence (besides Demon ranting on about how great of a knight he was) until a yelling sound filled the cool air. Demon spun around in surprise as none other than Zap and Windy launched themselves out of the well and high into the air. They faced the palms of their hands towards Demon.

Zap smirked and so did Windy as both of them started glowing with white energy. "Eat this, jerk!" They yelled in sync and at the same time released a blast of white energy from their hands. The blast smashed into the stadium and from there, the stadium fell over on top of itself and then fell into the well. Demon let out a roar of pain as the blast hit him before he himself fell into the well.

Windy and Zap gently landed gently on top of the black gate that used to surrounded the stadium and managed to keep their balance while giving each other a high-five. "Yeah! That was awesome!" Zap said with a grin as the crowd started cheering enthusiastically.

"Zap!" Light cried as she ran to the bottom of the gate and looked up at him and Windy. "Are you okay?"

Zap gave Light a thumbs up as Darkness walked up beside her. "I'm good!"

"That was quite impressive," Darkness called up to them as he crossed his arms. "How did you manage to do that?"

Zap glanced at Windy and grinned as the two of them jumped to the ground before Darkness and Light. "Just imagine all your energy surrounding you… and then just go with the flow."

Windy laughed as the king stood up, clapping. He spread his hands out to the two of them with a faint smile as the crowd went silent to hear him speak, "Very, very well done, children. I knew you two had something special within you. You have been permitted to join my ring of knights."

Windy and Zap both jumped up and down excitedly after the king said this and gave each other a hug as the crowd went wild again. Demon was then dragged out of the well and taken away as the king allowed another commander, a dark grey, female fox to fight the final two trying to become a knight: Darkness and Light.

"I am Commander Ice," the fox said to the two after they were moved to another area of town and were surrounded by just a cage. She pulled out light blue dual blades out of thin air and lifted them up for Darkness and Light to see as Zap and Windy watched, their eyes growing big. Commander Ice's eyes flashed a cold blue color as she looked at her two enemies before her. "And to become a knight you must first defeat me."

-XXXXXXXX-

Darkness suddenly laughed as soon as she finished the statement. Everyone looked at the small black cat in surprise as he threw his head back and laughed even harder. It was a strange laugh, the kind that gave the average person the chills.

After a moment, when he had finished laughing, Darkness smirked, his yellow eyes seeming to glow. "You make that sound like a challenge, Commander Ice."

Ice hissed, showing her teeth. "Are you mocking me?"

"Oh no," Darkness crossed his arms and became surrounded by black energy. When the energy faded, he looked about Light's age once more with the smirk growing bigger on his face. "I just find it amusing that you use lies to hide the truth from all of us."

"Why you…!" Ice growled.

"Dark," Light whispered. "This might not be the best idea…!"

"Don't worry," Darkness said to her gently. "We can do this. I know we can. If we work together then we can get rid of her." He held out a hand and concentrated. After a moment, and in a flash of dark light, a glowing double bladed axe appeared in his hands. He rested the red axe on his shoulder with a grin as Light held out a hand with a frown. She concentrated with everything she had, but nothing appeared in her hand.

She frowned at Darkness. "How…?"

"Go with the flow, Light… you can do this. I know you can." Darkness said as he looked at her. He suddenly ducked when Ice lunged at him and slashed with one of her blades. Darkness backed up quickly before spinning the axe in his hands like a windmill, having the dual blades get lodged into the shaft of his axe as Commander Ice slashed at him again.

After her blades got lodged into the shaft, Darkness kicked the commander away, making her fly backwards and hit the other side of the caged ring… without her blades.

Darkness chuckled as he flicked a hand, causing his axe to dissolve into darkness and the dual blades to fall to the ground. He bent down and picked both of them up before he looked up to see where Ice was… then blinked in surprise.

Light was running after Commander Ice and in her hands was a glowing white scythe. She swung the scythe horizontally and Ice had to do the limbo to avoid getting her upper body to be sliced off. Ice then did a back handspring to get back onto her feet.

Darkness chuckled and charged forward, assisting Light with Ice's dual blades. Ice could only back up to avoid the blows given to her as her eyes grew big with fear. Light finally slashed at Ice's feet and Ice fell over in surprise as Light stood over her with her scythe raised as if she was going to slice Ice's head off.

Ice closed her eyes and looked away; ready for the final blow as Light hesitated then lowered the scythe. "I won't kill you… but you lost. We won." Light said to her.

There was a moment of silence until the king clapped his hands once more, causing Darkness and Light to look over at him in surprise, "Very, very good! What excellent teamwork! You two are also permitted to become knights… and Ice… you know what this means now that you've lost, right?"

Ice closed her eyes. "I'd rather face death then this… to lose my title as a commander."

"Wait," Light frowned. She glanced over at the king. "Because she lost she can't be a commander anymore…?"

The king nodded and Light suddenly growled angrily. "And does Demon gets to stay as a commander?!"

The king nodded once more as Darkness also growled, he took a step forward, stepping on Ice as he did so, who let out a cry of pain and Darkness looked down at her in surprise. "Oh, dear me, I'm sorry," He removed his foot from Ice as she gasped in pain and he looked at the king. "That is by far the most absurd thing I've ever heard of. What kind of world is this?!"

The king was about to speak when suddenly Darkness disappeared then reappeared in front of him and picked up the king by the front of his velvet robes, hissing into his face as the crowd let out shocked gasps behind him. "If you have _any_ common sense then you will let Ice stay as a commander or so help me I will…!" Darkness stopped, leaving the threat hanging as his yellow eyes glowed an unnatural yellow color.

The king chuckled before trying to push Darkness' clenched hands off of his robes. "My dear boy! You have no right to make commands to me! I don't have to let you become a knight today."

"Well then," Darkness spat. "I'll go home with honor knowing that I stood up for what I believed in! Can you say as much?!"

There was a moment of shocked silence until the king suddenly clapped slowly again, surprising Darkness and causing him to twitch his ears as he lowered the king back onto his throne. The king coughed into his fist and then smiled weakly at Darkness. "My good boy, you have proven a very good point to this old man! Because of you I will let Commander Ice keep her position and not only that but you can also become a knight!"

Darkness blinked in surprise, like he couldn't believe it was that easy to change the king's mind as the entire town burst into enthusiastic cheering. It was probably because of how intimidating he looked as he held the king in his grip, looking like he was ready to kill the man if he didn't change his mind anytime soon.

He glanced back with a look of shock on his face as Zap and Windy also started cheering along with many of the others. Darkness then transformed back into his three-year-old or four- year-old form as Light came running out of the cage and hugged him tightly. "You did it! Thank you, Darkness." She whispered to him.

As the cheering continued, Darkness' ears twitched and he looked back into the cage Ice was still in, looking over Light's shoulder as he did so. Paramedics were bent down next to the fox, investigating her wounds thoughtfully. As they investigated her, Ice laid almost motionless on the ground, not daring to move. After a pause, Darkness heard one of the medics say to the fox. "How did you manage to break your ribs while falling…?"

Ice said nothing as she glanced over at Darkness, the look on her face was full of unspeakable hatred. Darkness looked her in the eye, and suddenly smirked. _Good luck with trying to get me in that shape…_ He thought. _I just saved your sorry life, pest._

**Three chapters down two to go! Anyways, if any of you have noticed if I've seemed distant over the past many days it's because I've joined a writing competition called Nanowrimo (don't ask me why, it's just called that) and it's where I have to write a book only in the entire month of November. So, that's where I've been mostly: typing. So, if I randomly disappear then reappear, never seem to answer to PMs, or review on stories don't worry.**

**Anyways, do leave a review and I'll see you around!**

**Oh—and does anyone else agree with me when I say that by the end of this story should we allow Metal to join the Ohana if he keeps reviewing?**


	7. The Rise of Father Darkness 4

***looks over a rock cautiously before letting out a yelp and ducking behind it to avoid various weapons being thrown at me***

**Windy "Get out from behind that sad little rock! We're not done with you yet!"**

**At least I didn't give up on the story, smart one!**

**Zap "Like that means anything. It's December already! Now post a chapter!"**

**Okay! Okay! *lifts a laptop for all to see* See? It's updated. I even thanked the Ohana, Metal, and Anna for reviewing! See? See?!**

**Sierra *scoffs and lowers her sword* "Great. Now what's my excuse to kill her?"**

**Everyone else *looks at Sierra* "..."**

**Chaos= I don't know, the same reason why I stay up so ridiculously late? XD  
Darkness "Oh I am, am I?" *chuckles* "Maybe this will make it for certain."  
*looks at Darkness then at you* Stalker... *points to Darkness* XD  
**

**Storm= Haha! You too? I wasn't able to do it... even finish it -_- all my teachers must've known I was trying to write a story and decided it would be hilarious to give me homework. How did your story go?  
FD "Oh that's good, neither did I."  
Zap *face palms and looks at Braelyn* "Can I kill him, _please_?!"  
FD *chuckles* "You couldn't land a blow on me even if you wanted to."  
Zap "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! After this chapter everyone will understand why I want you dead!"  
FD *looks at Zap and shakes his head slowly*  
Dang...? Well! *shrugs* it works! :D  
**

**Metal= Haha, Metal, most of us in the Ohana are fools in some type of way, even me. XD  
Darkness "You're proud of me?" *smirks* "Oh why thank you."  
**

**Rya= FD *sighs angrily as you hug him* "No Rya, you cannot call me such a ridiculous nickname as Darkie."  
Zap *whispers to you* "Maybe if you squeeze him tighter... and make his head explode..."  
FD *glares at Zap then smirks as Zap's face goes red. Looks at the list of nicknames paper with a smirk that slowly turns into a creepy, dark grin* "Oh, this is gold."  
Zap *face is still red* "W-whatever! I taught her some things too!"  
Windy *face also goes red from the comment* "Um..."  
FD *nods to you* "Yes... he's a useless king." *smirks suddenly*  
Why we'd sell it to aliens of course! XD and we'll take over with sharpies and... rubber ducks *nods proudly* :P  
**

**Retto= Zap *sighs in disbelief* "The stupid number went up since last time...!"  
Aw c'mon Zap, this is a lot of fun! XD  
Zap *annoyed look* "Yes. For you at least."  
Haha well since you're the only one that says you know... have a muffin. *grins and hands you a muffin with a grin*  
Oh! Your sister did it?! That's great! Did she win?  
Xsus *yelps and steps backwards quickly but watches some of his fur get cut off with wide eyes* "Too close!" *pulls out his sword and starts to block and slash back*  
**

**Anna= Haha psssh! So what if I lost my bragging rights...! Waaaait. Aha! I've written more stories than you on FanFiction! My bragging rights have returned! :P  
Zap *scowls at you* "Oh you're hilarious."  
**

**Strife= Light "Why yes, a scythe. Would you like to see it?" *hands it to you*  
Hah, no Dark doesn't know who Ice is.  
Darkness *smirks* "So many things."  
Haha, yep! Go with the flow! And glad you liked that part... it was a lot of fun to write!  
**

**Amicus= Grim *shrinks a little as you touch his head*  
FD *glares as you touch his*  
Windy *laughs and then looks at Eric before laughing harder*  
Zap *mutters* "You try to be called a bunch of insulting nicknames. Besides, after the events in this story the nickname usage went down until Katherine came around... and now _everyone's_ calling me something pointless again."  
Haha! Thank you! I hated Demon, even while writing him! He was such a pain *annoyed look then grins* Haha a scythe... Terrarock... that's true... hm... *reads the words and scowls* Oh! Pssh! I knew that XP Glad you liked my action chapter! This one-sort of, not really- is too!  
**

**UFO= Haha! It's fine, I should be the sorry one... seeing how I haven't updated in almost a month... But I hope you come back soon!  
*goes quiet* Slender... I am afraid of that being. I will not deny it. Him and FD. *nods* But it's okay! If you see him just tell him to come after BlackSandHeart's friend... it's a long story but basically a friend of mine wants to be friends with the thing XD. But anyways, hopefully you come back soon...!  
**

**Disclaimer: Caudex! I already gave you one! *throws an apple at you, gets up and walks away muttering something about humans***

**_THE RISE OF FATHER DARKNESS:_**

_Two hundred years later…_

Zap sighed as he walked down the hallway. His white shoes made hardly a sound as his white cape swooshed behind him. Beside him, Windy walked wearing the same white clothes he had on with her hands in her pockets. She glanced over at Zap after a moment. "Can you believe it?"

"Believe what?" Zap asked, looking at her.

"It's been two hundred years since we've joined." Windy said with a shrug.

"And a successful two hundred years it's been," Zap said with a nod. In the past two hundred years, they managed to stop the fighting, reunite the seven kingdoms into one large diplomatic kingdom, and live in peace. The peace was blissful and the kingdom changed its name to Light Giver, and calling the people there the Light Givers. The plan was to invent a way to travel across the universe and actually give light, or hope, to the people who needed it, hence the name.

All knights no longer wore suits of armor, just glowing white clothes, shoes, and a white cape. All were required to carry a sword with them now and all was finally at peace. Zap fondly thought of his other siblings that passed with him on that day so many years ago. Light had managed to find a way to become the king's right hand man… or woman… or hedgehog and was supposed to rule the Light Givers next after the current king died.

Darkness, like Zap, had become a commander of his own army and in his spare time was Light's body guard. He seemed to enjoy being a body guard more than a commander though, since the fighting had stopped and all the evil that remained was the common, pesky thief or assassin. But even those were rare now. The only major problem the government had been dealing with was the disappearances of people but only one person went missing once a week, three was the maximum so far and all were in different parts of the world, having nothing to do with each other.

Windy chuckled next to Zap and he looked over as his lieutenant. "Funny if you really think about it… I can't believe there's finally peace. I thought the seven kingdoms would _never_ get along!"

"You're telling me," Zap said with a laugh as they took a turn and walked further down another hallway. The smooth flooring reminded Zap of ice and he could see his and Windy's reflections when he looked down. He gently reached up and touched the zigzag scar that had appeared on the left side of his face after a failed experiment on himself a few years earlier.

Both had grown over the years, looking like teenagers now, except Zap was a few inches taller than Windy (much to her dismay).

Zap suddenly stopped and looked over at the garden on his right, since half of the hallway opened up to the outside world and the other half was covered in doors and walls which were underneath a small, diagonal roof. He looked out over the garden, enjoying the fresh smell of cut grass and flowers as Windy stopped next to him.

"Oh Zappy Boy…?" Windy chuckled. "Come on, we have to meet Dark and Light still."

"Right," Zap tore his eyes away from the beautiful scenery of grass, a fountain, flowers, bushes, and trees then followed Windy. The two walked in silence, listening to the birds chirping in the trees next to them and the sound of other Light Givers just outside the walls around them.

They finally stopped before a door numbered four and opened it cautiously. It was a Japanese style door so they had to slide it open to see the inside of the room. As the door slid open before them, they frowned when all they found was an empty room. Zap glanced at Windy. "Is this the right place?"

Windy pulled a piece of paper out of thin air, reminding Zap how good the two of them had become in using Light Energy. She looked at the paper with a frown and read the directions out loud. "It says: 'meet Darkness and I at Light Givers' Corner on Staryian Way in room number four'." As soon as she finished reading, she looked up at Zap and shrugged.

"Zap! Windy!" A voice cried and Zap and Windy glanced back in surprise to see Light running down the hallway. Both of the Light Givers showed huge grins on their faces as Light gave Zap a tackle hug. "It's so good to see you're still safe, Zap!"

Zap laughed as he returned the hug. "Light, it's nothing too bad, I do have the best lieutenant, if you forgot."

Windy rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, her face turning red. "Zap…!"

"Come on, Wind, you know it's true! Without you I'd be dead long ago!"

Windy laughed as Light waved a hand at room four. "How about we get inside and get comfortable?" Light asked. "We have almost twenty years to share with each other and I bet you have had more of an interesting life then me."

"Oh really?" Windy teased. "What about that one time with Darkness…?"

Light blushed and shook her head. "T-that has nothing to do with a-anything! A thief broke into my room and Darkness saved my life. How does that have to do with anything?" She led the way into the room and sat down on one of the leather couches as Zap took one of the lounge chairs, leaning back in it and lacing his fingers together across his stomach.

Zap waved a hand at Light as Windy took a seat next to her and put her feet on the wooden coffee table. "So, Light, tell us, how have things been?"

Light smiled at Zap. "Pretty good. Since I have been moved up to the king's right hand woman, I can finally start being able to save people. I think I'll start looking into the disappearing case to see what's going on there when I get the chance too."

Zap laughed. "But that's not too big of a deal. People go missing every day and most of the time it's because they're dead."

Light nodded at Zap. "True… but it's not like there's anything else I can do!"

Zap nodded thoughtfully to himself, she had a point.

Windy smiled at Light after a moment of silence. "Well, it's so good to see you again, Light. It's been years since we've last seen each other!"

"I'm glad to see you too, Windy," Light smiled and gave Windy a tight hug while Zap rolled his eyes. _Girls, go figure,_ He thought.

Suddenly, the door opened and Darkness stepped in. Light, Windy, and Zap glanced over at him in surprise as he waved at them, "Hello."

"Hello, Dark," Light said with a smile and then suddenly frowned when she looked at Darkness' other hand. "Um… Darkness?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you carrying your axe around?"

"Oh, silly me," Darkness said as he flicked his wrist, causing the axe to vanish from sight. "I forgot to put my axe away again. Not easy when you have a disruptive army and Ice's great, great, granddaughter as your lieutenant."

Light rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you picked you picked her to be your lieutenant."

"She's a good fighter, and besides, her many greats grandmother still owes me one for saving her title," Darkness scoffed. He calmly took a seat on the floor and Zap couldn't help but suddenly get the chills as he looked at Darkness. He looked the same, but he had refused to wear white and wore the clothes he and Zap used to always wear: camouflage army pants, black boots, but instead of a white tank top he wore a dark black shirt, that matched _way_ too well with his clothes and fur.

Darkness' yellow eyes seemed to glow as he glanced over at Zap. "My goodness, you have grown quite a lot over the last twenty years, Zap."

"You've changed a lot too, Dark," Zap replied.

Darkness nodded and suddenly, the doors flew open. They all glanced over in surprise to see one of the royal courts' guards standing in the doorway, they knew since only the guards in the royal court wore armor like they used to in the old days. However, the guard's brown eyes glowed with terror and his dark blue fur seemed to be standing on end. He was breathing heavily as he looked around the room before his eyes rested on the four inside.

"Oh!" Light smiled at the guard. "Good to have you here Ralph, what brings you here?"

Zap looked over at Ralph as he bowed before Light, "My lady! A terrible thing has happened!"

"What is it?" Light frowned.

"The king is dead! He was found lying in a pool of his own blood!"

-XXXXXXXX-

After that day, things slowly fell apart into chaos. More and more people disappeared daily. From the average civilian to high commanders, like Darkness' lieutenant. Light was put on the throne but even she didn't seem to know how to put everything back into order. Zap and Windy both were sent on wild adventures to find the killer, and Zap noticed Darkness getting more and more distant during each passing day.

"Darkness," Zap finally said to him one day. "Come on, why aren't you helping us? We need your help to find the killer!"

Darkness shrugged, "I don't see how it's my problem. I never did have a care for the king. He always was a sexist man and you know that I hate those kinds of people dearly. Why should I help?"

Zap growled angrily and walked away from Darkness to go find Windy as the black cat watched him go, saying nothing.

The chaos got worse of course. After a year of people disappearing by the thousands every week, they found out where half of them went, south. They seemed to have formed some kind of unknown group that did evil deeds against the Light Givers. When Light sent an army to go defeat them, all but one would die horrible deaths. And the one that survived… had gone mad beyond repair. All they could get out of him was mumblings of a monster of the night had appeared and killed them all.

Windy calmly walked into a room one day and stopped short when she saw Zap muttering to himself. She looked at him with a sad look on her face before sighing. "What's the problem, Zips?"

Zap growled and threw a rubber ball he was holding to the other side of the room, watching it bounce high into the air and land on the ground before bouncing off. He looked at Windy, blue eyes blazing. "This doesn't make any sense! Who could the monster be that's the leader of this group of evil people? A monster of the night? What could this all mean?!"

A few months later, the group finally had come up with a name for themselves: the Followers of Darkness. It was around then when it was painfully obvious that they had a leader but whoever this leader was, it was a heavily guarded secret. This group of people wore dark clothes, wearing the exact opposite colors of what the Light Givers wore.

Zap found himself staying up later at night, worrying, fearing, and thinking. Windy would try to help as much as she could but couldn't do anything about it. Light wasn't any better as her right hand woman, and best friend, Tatha, assisted her.

"Come now," Tatha said to her as Light marched back and forth fearfully. "Everything will turn out fine, wait, you'll see. Why don't you relax?"

"I wish I could do that," Light muttered as she walked back and forth fearfully. "But I will not rest easy until I find who the leader of the Followers of Darkness is."

Tatha nodded in defeat and the white cat bowed gracefully, her blue eyes glowing, "As you wish, Light."

"Thank you Tatha, now it is your turn to rest." Light said seriously and Tatha turned to leave the room. Light watched her friend leave sadly, her green eyes seeming to glow in the darkness since it was nearly midnight outside. She wrapped her arms together in a fearful hug and suddenly felt someone walk up behind her.

Light glanced back in surprise and fear and then let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's just you, Darkness."

Darkness chuckled. "Surprised to see me?"

"Yes, you seemed to suddenly appear."

"I do have a habit of doing that," Darkness said and he gently took her arm into his. "Come, let us walk. I do not like seeing how uneasy you are."

"But… we could go into war soon… and it feels like we just got out of it…" Light muttered as Darkness pulled her away and down the hallways of the palace. The white walls around them seemed to make Darkness stick out like a sore thumb like that day two hundred years ago at the village. He gently pulled Light down the hallways until they came out onto a balcony, the duo moons rose high into the sky, giving the landscape an alien like look as the two walked to the edge of the white stoned balcony.

Light drifted her green eyes out unto the world of the Light Givers. It was peaceful this night, and she always liked these types of nights. The two full moons, one being much larger than the other, showed her the view of the city before her, all the lights were turned off and the forest surrounding the city reminded Light of Windy's eye color for a moment.

Darkness stood next to her, also looking over the city and woods as Light glanced over at him, noticing how his black fur seemed to glow in the moonlight. "Darkness…" She started to say and Darkness glanced over to her as she spoke.

"Yes?"

"Will we ever see peace again? I missed the days when life was bright and happy. Where one could just run through the woods feeling the feeling of safety and security…" Light closed her eyes, as if imagining the moment.

Darkness said nothing as he looked over the city and Light continued after a moment of silence. "I mean, think about it… remember those days when Tabatha was still alive and we used to visit? All our siblings would be so happy to see us… and they all died in such a happy time…"

"Light," Darkness finally said and Light looked over at him in surprise, opening her eyes as she did so.

"Yes, Darkness?"

Darkness took a step towards Light and held his hands open for a hug. Light didn't even hesitate to jump into his arms. She buried her face into Darkness' fur as he gently hugged her. "You don't have to worry about that anymore. Never, ever again." Darkness said to her quietly.

"How? There's still war, when I look unto the world that's all I see." Light whispered, her words a bit muffled in his fur.

Darkness' yellow eyes glowed as he glanced at the hedgehog in his arms. He shook his head slowly after a moment. "No, you don't have to worry about it anymore. Never again. Because…" There was a moment of silence as Darkness let the word hang in the air, as if trying to give Light something to hope about. Suddenly, Light let out a choking sound and Darkness' eyes grew darker as an unnatural smile grew up his face.

Darkness pushed Light off of him and she fell over, looking at the knife in her stomach in surprise, like she couldn't believe it was there. She looked up at Darkness with horror in her emerald green eyes as Darkness stood in the moonlight, making her only see his glowing yellow eyes as they suddenly turned catlike.

"…because_ I_ am the leader of the Followers of Darkness."

**XD Take that Chaos and Storm.**

**Please review and I'll put up the next chapter as soon as possible!  
**


	8. The Rise of Father Darkness 5

**Action Chapter! :D Anyways, I'll make this quick with a quick wrap up from the last chapter: Darkness just stabbed Light and Zap and Windy are still unaware of this. What could happen now...?  
**

**Thanks to the Ohana and a few others for reviewing!  
**

**Chaos=FD *looks at you* "I don't think I want to come anywhere _near_ you at the moment."  
Hang on...! I call taking out Wind XD  
Windy "It is on!" *pulls out her sword*  
Zap *sighs* "What have I ever done to you two...?"  
Haha, if that was the case then it'd be easier to go to England for me! :D  
**

**Retto= Zap *face palms at the names count and sighs*  
Oh that sounds like a lot of fun. And it was a Doctor Who FanFic, you can't get any better than that. I bet she'll finish it! But then again... I don't know your sister as well as you do probably. You have the better guess on if she'll finish it or not than me haha.  
Terrarock? Oh, about... another thirteen trillion years. He actually started off on the bottom of the chain and worked his way to the top... I plan on writing a story about that to explain how he took over. He took over while Katherine dimension jumped to Mobius, or in Chaos' story when they dimension jumped back to Katherine's home dimension... lol I probably just confused you didn't I? If so, sorry...!  
Xsus *dulls his blade while swinging his sword again and stops your sword from going any further, but his arms are shaking from the strain he's putting on his sword to keep you from cutting him*  
**

**Metal= You reviewed! :D Anyways, yeaaaah I'd lose respect too if I were you. And here is Zap and Windy's epic way on stopping Darkness. Hope you like it!  
**

**Storm= xD well as long as you were working on _at least_ one story, right? *grins like a fool*  
Zap "C'mon Darkness! Outside we go! You can tag along too, Robyn! The more the better!"  
FD "I prefer to stay indoors and away from the sun."  
Zap *face palms*  
*looks at Nomad as she falls over then looks to Braelyn with a shrug* Um... success...?  
FD *smirks at Braelyn and Robyn's anger* "My my! Look who's finally seen the stronger foe here!"  
**

**Banana= Heck yeah! Because I can teleport at school to the other side of the room when no one's paying attention to me ;) best moments of my life ever.  
Zap *scoffs* "Don't imply, I'm still annoyed with you to think such a thing!"  
Windy *puts her hands into the air* "I'm not involved...!"  
Chase "Eeeeey! Mah fisherwoman!" xD  
Jackson *face palms while laughing as Ria sighs in disbelief but is smiling*  
**

**Amicus= Noooo! Amicus D:  
Grim *watches you scoot away saying nothing*  
FD *smirks as you scoot away*  
Windy *(if possible now) laughs twice as hard*  
Zap *sighs in disbelief* "I got thirty nicknames on me and counting from Retto. Over half of them were from Katherine and Windy..."  
*yelps and tries- and fails- to catch the apple. Watches it roll on the ground then looks at you and laughs.* Oh nice, that was unexpected haha. But I'm sorry! I didn't mean to break your poor heart! At least your sort of knew that was coming, right? *pouts* would you like a hug...? XD  
**

**Disclaimer: FD *smirks* "Do you want me to carve it into the side of your face so you won't have to ask again?"  
Others *give FD disturbed looks*  
Katherine "That's just _wrong_. You hear me? Wrong."  
**

**Chapter Five=**

_Later that night…_

Zap frowned as he moved around in the mass crowd of people before the palace. All had been given abrupt summoning to the palace by Light herself, saying that she had finally found the leader of the Followers of Darkness. Windy stood close to Zap and frowned to herself, why would Light want to tell all these people at such a late hour? It had to be almost four in the morning.

Windy yawned and closed her eyes. "I am so… very… sleepy…"

Zap glanced at her and sighed in disbelief as Windy hung her head. He shook his head slowly. "Just go to sleep Wind."

Windy moved over next to him and rested her head on his shoulder, resulting a scowl to appear on Zap's face. He looked at her and saw that she had her eyes closed. "What are you doing?"

"Sleeping on your shoulder, smart one, now shh, I'm trying to sleep."

Zap decided not to argue, especially now that the doors to the palace started to open. Zap looked at those large doors hopefully and excitedly, he could now finally rest easy now that he could know who the blasted leader of the Followers of Darkness was.

Zap's hopes fell when he saw Darkness walking out of the building, his head held high and a smirk on his face. Zap frowned when he noticed how Darkness' clothes were black, matching well with his dark fur. With a chill, Zap realized they were the same clothes Followers of Darkness wore.

Talking suddenly erupted from the crowd below, all talking to each other in confusion, all wanting to know what was going on and where Light could possibly be.

"Light Givers!" Darkness suddenly yelled and all looked at him in surprise. He chuckled as he held his hands behind his back and Zap's eyes narrowed, noticing that when he spoke, the temperature in the entire area dropped twenty degrees. His voice echoed loud and clear throughout the entire area, making Zap almost positive everyone in the city could hear him. "When Light said she sent you all here to tell you who the leader of the Followers of Darkness was, she wasn't lying. Please my good people do try to be reasonable!"

All talking stopped within the square they were in and all looked at him in surprise.

Darkness suddenly held a hand out and Light appeared in his grip, causing shocked gasps of horror to come out of everyone's mouths. Light hung limply in Darkness' hand, blood slowly leaking out of wound from her stomach. Darkness smirked and dropped Light to the ground where the blue hedgehog crashed hard onto the ground, but didn't get back up. Her green eyes had a lifeless glaze over them.

"Behold!" Darkness roared. "I am the leader of the Followers of Darkness! I am the one that killed the king and now I killed the queen! I have been given rights to rule and all of you shall bow before me! The Light Givers are no more after this!"

As soon as he finished saying this, everyone started screaming and running. Zap's eyes widened as the pieces of the puzzle slowly came together. That was why he had his axe out when he met them at the meeting place over a year ago. That was why he didn't want to help find the killer. And this, this was why he was growing so distant.

Zap could only feel horror and disbelief as he stood still. Windy was wide awake next to him, she had heard the entire thing and couldn't find herself to move either. People flocked out of the streets, trying to get away from Darkness as he let out a dark laugh that seemed to shatter the very sanity he had left. People moved around them but Zap could only see all the way to the steps, at where Light lay, lifeless and cold.

Zap felt tears forming in his eyes and unbelievable anger slowly building up in him. "W-Why you…!" He growled, finding himself snarling furiously and Windy looked at him in surprise.

"Zap…?"

"Go protect the civilians. The Light Givers will _not_ die today under my watch!" Zap yelled, giving Windy one of the darkest looks she had ever seen on his face. "I will not let this Follower of Darkness scum kill my sister, Light, without getting away with it! NOW GO!"

Windy nodded and turned, running down the road to find some guards or even friends that were sane enough to assist her. Zap turned his attention to Darkness, noticing how he seemed to be glowing with dark power as he started rising up into the air.

Zap ran forward, pushing through the crowd until he got up to the bottom of the steps at last, he looked up at Darkness as he floated into the air, "DARKNESS!" He yelled as he stole a moment to look at Light with a look of horror again.

Darkness glanced down and chuckled as he vanished and reappeared in the shadows of the castle on the ground. "My, my, if it isn't little Zap?"

"You…!" Zap growled, "How long have you been planning to do this?!"

Darkness chuckled. "Why, since the beginning of course! Ever since that pitiful day I was dragged out of my home: the Forgotten Forest. When dear old Tabatha dragged me out of my home, I already knew I was supposed to cause more chaos in this sad little world thanks to an old fortune teller."

"How did you get your injuries then?" Zap frowned.

"I faked them, you won't believe how talented I am in the gift of Dark Energy, but over these last two hundred years I've grown stronger than ever! How else could I have made my axe with such ease while doing the knight's challenge for the first time?" Darkness chuckled. "How else do you think I could've walked down those stairs in Tabatha's home? You saw how bad the injuries were yourself! There could have been no logical explanation on how I got down Tabatha's stairs."

"W-what about Light though?" Zap finally cried. "I thought you… you…"

"You thought I loved her? Ha, please," Darkness chuckled as he glanced at Light's lifeless body before looking at Zap again. "The entire time I was calculating on how to destroy her. I became her bodyguard so I could find a direct access to get to her. I fought along side her to learn her battle tactics. I also became a commander so I could start my own army and create my group: the Followers of Darkness."

Zap found tears forming in his eyes. "I-I hate you… Dark… I hate you…"

"Hate is a bit too strong word, don't you think? Try despise. It's a much fancier word." Darkness smirked. "And besides, I wish not to use that despicable name anymore. Call me by my real name: Father Darkness. For I am the master of darkness, the father of it, I am darkness itself."

There was a moment of silence until Zap suddenly turned on Father Darkness, "You calculating, demon! And I bet the entire reason why you were so mad about things being sexist was because you wanted Light to become the ruler so you could kill her then rule the world, isn't it?!"

Father Darkness shrugged innocently as Zap continued. "And that one time, when you pretended not to know what the seven kingdoms were, you knew what they were all along, didn't you?!"

"Guilty as charged," Father Darkness said.

Zap found himself shaking in anger. Almost all he could see was red as he turned his blue eyes onto FD, or Father Darkness, hatefully. "You are a monster that shouldn't even live. I am a guardian of the Light Givers and I _will_ destroy you!"

FD blinked as Zap flicked his hand, revealing his sword. White lightning sparked as it flew down Zap's sword and he lifted it up for FD to see. "I am going to cut your head off right here, right now!"

Father Darkness flicked his hand, revealing his axe and lifted it up for Zap to see. "Not unless I have anything to say about it."

Zap lunged at FD, lifting his sword high into the air with a cry, feeling tears finally find their way down his face. He swung downwards but his sword hit nothing but air as Father Darkness side stepped the attack, smirking ever so slightly.

Zap blindly swung the sword after FD as he ducked out of the way with a chuckle. "My, my Zap, you've lost your touch, haven't you? You've grown soft after all these years of peace haven't you? You haven't even fought one of my Followers of Darkness yet, have you?"

"SHUT UP!" Zap roared as he lifted a hand and felt lighting sparked off of it. The lightning smashed into FD and he flew in the air, and crashed right through a building before sliding to a stop on top of it. His yellow eyes opened and he hissed, seeing smoke floating off his body.

He pulled out his large axe from no where and held it up as Zap teleported out of thin air above him by using Light Energy and slashed downwards. Zap's sword crashed into FD's axe and Zap felt tears further dripping down his face as images of Tabatha, Light, and all of the other people that took care of him and stood by his side so far flashed through his mind. All of them, all of these people, had been foolishly tricked by this monster. How did he let this happen?

Zap opened the palm of his hand and let lose a huge blast of energy that missed FD by inches, INCHES! Zap felt frustration grow inside of him as he tried to hit FD but all his attacks fell short. He knew he was being reckless, he could only see red through his teary eyed vision.

FD let out a dark laugh as he suddenly appeared high above Zap. Zap stole the moment to look up at Father Darkness as he put his palms together and released a huge wave of black energy. Zap barely had time to leap out of the main beam of the attack but was still hit by the edges of the seething hot energy. He let out a yell of pain and fell to the ground with a crash.

After a moment of lying motionless, Zap's arms shook as he slowly pushed himself back to his feet, flicking his long tail as he did so, his blue eyes staring at the ground, expressionless, as Father Darkness landed not too far away.

FD smirked as he looked at Zap. "Look at you… you're so pathetic. I've seen children fight better than you."

Zap glanced at FD as he continued. "That's right, children. The Followers of Darkness cannot continue with just men." He showed a scary grin that stretched unnaturally up his face as he chuckled.

"You…!" Zap gasped, feeling like all his energy had been sucked out of him. "You're a monster… you're nothing like the person I knew before this…!"

Father Darkness let out a laugh. "Ha! You think that was that person? That wasn't me at all, just a cover up over my true self. This is the real me."

"Then I'll have to kill you without any mercy!" Zap yelled as he grabbed his sword from the ground and lunged at Father Darkness again but stopped short when FD merely grabbed Zap by his throat and lifted him into the air. Father Darkness' yellow eyes glowed with interest as he watched Zap struggle.

"You think you could've stopped me by just doing that? You really are a miserable soul… maybe after your dead I can change some things around here. What should my first order of business be when I rule over both the Light Givers and Followers of Darkness…?" FD tapped his chin thoughtfully after he stated this before smirking and looked at Zap as he struggled to get out of his grip, trying to find air.

When Zap said nothing, Father Darkness continued with the smirk growing on his face. "Maybe I should kill another useless soul… hmm… who shall I kill after you? How about… Windy…?"

Zap's eyes widened and he felt himself going slack in Father Darkness' grip. All he could think of was as his vision dimmed was Windy. He always cared for his lieutenant, she had kept him alive for this long. She made sure he hadn't gotten himself killed in war, she taught him the majority of the Light Energy tricks, and he taught her some things himself. If anything happened to her he would forever blame it on himself…

_If only…_ Zap thought to himself as his vision grew darker. _If only… I could… move… Windy… Windy!_

Unknown power found its way into Zap's body as he jerked out of Father Darkness' grip. FD dropped him in surprise as Zap dropped to the ground, breathing heavily before turning blue eyes full of hatred towards FD's yellow ones. "You will _not_ touch Windy _ever_!" He yelled as he stood up then shoved a fist into FD's face, smirking as FD tried jumping out of the way but only to have the fist lodge into the side of his face.

FD flew right through another building from the force of the punch before struggling to his feet on the ground on the other side of the building, spitting and breathing heavily. He glanced at Zap with pure rage as Zap picked up his sword and shot a bolt of lightning in FD's direction. Father Darkness could only roll out of the way and then dive in another direction as Zap appeared out of thin air in front of the black cat and swung his sword downwards onto FD, barely missing his head.

Zap swung again and sliced a good cut into the ground as FD rolled to his feet and dissolved into darkness itself. Zap looked around wildly before seeing Father Darkness appear out of the shadows not too far away, running through the crowd of civilians as they screamed louder.

Zap's eyes narrowed and he launched himself into the air before landing on top of a nearby building. He then ran along the rooftops, keeping an eye on FD on the ground as the follower pulled out his axe and sliced a Light Giver in half without looking back.

Zap looked ahead and paled. _He's going to hurt more people…!_ He thought to himself and launched a bolt of lightning at FD again. Father Darkness rolled out of the way just in time and slid around the corner with Zap still following him above.

As FD suddenly turned to blast the lights out of a few hundred people for the heck of it, he sensed something dropping down from above. He glanced up only to see Zap drop down on top of his head. The two rolled around, throwing stinging insults at each other that both of them literally meant to each other now. Both lost their weapons in the tackle and were now throwing their fists at each other in rage.

"You self centered jerk!" Zap yelled as they rolled around on the ground. "You ruined _everything_ I lived for!"

"Oh getting mad, are we?" Father Darkness asked mockingly. "You really are a pathetic coward!"

Zap finally threw Father Darkness off of him and was surprised to find that the two had managed to roll themselves to the edge of the city. FD and Zap alike both jumped to their feet and conjured up their weapons again with a bit of light and dark energy.

Windy suddenly appeared next to Zap before FD could lunge at the Light Giver and civilians were starting to gather behind them, all looking terrified as they all glowed in the light of the double moons. Silence suddenly fell onto the group as FD glared at the group, breathing heavily as his yellow, catlike eyes glowed.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" He finally said after a moment of silence to Zap and Windy. "You know who the leader of the Followers of Darkness is. Your leader is dead. Two of your leaders have been killed by me."

Zap felt tears in his eyes once more as he remembered Light's lifeless body on the steps to the palace. He turned his hateful eyes onto FD and pointed towards the south, which was directly behind Father Darkness. "Leave," He said hoarsely. "Leave and never come back. I don't want to see your face ever again."

Father Darkness said nothing, surprised that Zap hadn't tried to kill him again. He smirked and shook his head. "Very well, then I take my leave…"

"And don't forget," Zap growled, pointing his sword at FD as he interrupted him. "That this…? This means war."

Father Darkness smirked then bowed dramatically, "Very well! Then this is war. Farewell, Zap. May we meet again as enemies."

"As it should be," Zap spat and FD turned before walking away into the woods, south, towards the Followers of Darkness' territory. His black cape flapping in the gust of wind Windy conjured up behind him.

-XXXXXXXX-

PRESENT DAY

LIGHT GIVERS' TERRITORY: LAND OF THE LOSS

Zap sighed quietly to himself as he walked down the steps. It was just him this time, him carrying a candle down the stairs with him. Dust was thick in the air and he sneezed, blowing some of the dust away from his face for a moment.

Stone caskets surrounded him when he reached the bottom of the stairs. Thick spider webs covered everything along with a thick layer of dust that could make any layered cake jealous. His boots left footprints behind him, since the typical white shoes changed to any colored boots. In fact, the policy of what kind of clothes one could wear had changed, new Light Givers could wear whatever they wanted to but Zap and Windy still kept to the old ways, only wearing boots now.

He walked down the hallways filled with heroes that had died years and years ago. He glanced over and chuckled as he recognized some of the names. Some thoughts that went through his mind were like this as he walked along: _heh… look, there's Sammy. That boy had the ability to eat anything, I swear it. And there… there's James. I never knew a braver, more desperate soul then him, tried to fight Father Darkness by himself…_

After walking for what felt like years, Zap finally stopped before a large golden casket. It was dusty enough that the name plate was covered and with a hand, he wiped away the lair of dust and sand that had gathered on top of it, revealing the name in neat, cursive handwriting: _Light_.

Zap smiled as he ran a hand along the casket. "Hello my dear sister… everything is better now. I have been receiving more help from the ones in the other dimension. Father Darkness is still trying to destroy the Light Givers but I won't let him, don't you worry. You continue to rest easy, my friend."

Zap stayed quiet for a few moments, as if waiting for someone to answer him before smiling and tapping the lid of the coffin gently. "Farewell, Light. I will visit you again soon, I promise." With that, Zap nodded to himself and slowly walked away, missing the quiet sound of someone singing, and the person's voice sounded just like Light's.

-XXXXXXXX-

Father Darkness' catlike, yellow eyes opened slowly when he heard a knock on the door, pulling him out of the glorious memories of his victory in the past. His devil horn shaped ears twitched when he heard the familiar voice of his most loyal subjects, Sierra, call out to him through the door.

"My lord? We're ready."

"Very well Sierra, tell them I am on my way." Father Darkness said then smirked at the sound of his dark voice, sounding so much darker and more powerful then it had when he was a small child.

FD stood up from his large throne slowly and dramatically after a moment of silence. The Lord of Darkness glanced back at the shadows behind him as he heard Sierra walking away from the large black doors leading into this very room.

When FD looked back, he saw nothing but blessed darkness and after a moment of thought, he looked forward again, his black cloak was standing out behind him like a shadow of death. He then walked down the few steps leading to his chair and stopped when his boots touched the stone flooring that surrounded his throne.

FD looked up before teleporting towards the ceiling of the throne room. He reappeared on a small, wooden walkway that was hidden in a shroud of darkness that kept this area of the room hidden from unknowing eyes. He had a maze of secret passageways through the doorway at the end of the walkway, even some that led to Light Givers' square. His boots made the walkway tremble as he moved towards the black doorway lined with skulls at the end of the walkway.

When he reached the reached the doorway, he looked through it then down at the set of spiral stairs. Father Darkness stared at those steps before walking forward and descending down them slowly, his cloak dragging on the steps behind him as he Light's last words came to him suddenly.

_"They'll stop you…"_ Light had told him through painful gasps as she slowly died. The knife that was in her stomach was now by her side since she had pulled it out. A pool of blood was slowly forming around her as she gasped. _"Zap and Windy will… and if they don't someone… someone else will. Maybe… maybe… even me because I'll be back one day… Dark… ness. Maybe not in this form… but I'll be back…"_

Father Darkness smirked to himself as he tried to think of some logical way for Light to come back. But when he found nothing, he released a dark chuckle.

He stepped out of one of the many doorways in the passageway and out into the— somewhat— brighter light of the Followers of Darkness' territory. His yellow eyes were glowing as he grabbed onto the railing surrounding the black stoned balcony he was now on.

The black balcony overlooked a large crowd of at least sixteen thousand Followers of Darkness standing in the square of the city, his city. The crowd cheered loudly and enthusiastically when they saw their leader.

Father Darkness gripped the railing, a dark grin growing on his face as his yellow eyes scanned skimmed over the heads in the crowd.

"Hello my followers..."

**THE END**

**And scene.  
**

**So, there you go. That is why the darkness and the light cannot get along and were never meant to work together. The only way for that to even begin to happen is for FD to lose his reign over the followers and that is probably not going to happen anytime soon, sadly.  
**

**Anyways, hope you liked the story! Please share your thoughts and I plan on putting up my next story (back into the modern days) within the week! So, keep an eye out for the next adventure: "Unknown Story"!  
**

**-Also- Metal is now allowed into the Ohana if he reviews this chapter. Quick, everyone bombard him with PMs! XD welcome to the family, Metalshadow1909!  
**

**Light be with you 'till we meet again.  
**

**~BlackSandHeart  
**


	9. This is War short

**Let us begin. This story was brought to you by my brother Chaotic Hedgehog and my sister BlackStormNomad. The duo wrote short stories based off of my own story, This is War, and after reading their stories they inspired me to give another go at this. Although warning now: this story pushes the "T" rating because of blood and... depressingness...? (haha I know that's not a word!)**

**With that cheerful thought, to the reviewers!  
**

**Retto= *laughs* I remember the word count...!  
FD *scoffs* "I happen to enjoy stairs."  
Oh...! If you remember who played it let me know! I need some new songs... *laughs*  
You have? How's that goin' for you? They're quite fun characters to use for acting! I should know... I am in a drama class... *laughs*  
**

**Amicus= Oh you liked the disclaimer? Haha it was kind of... FD's... obvious idea *laughs*  
FD *smirks* "Of course not." *looks at you pointing to his quote and smirks* "If only you want to."  
Zap *rubs the back of his head sheepishly as you talk about him wanting to save Windy*  
At the line "Can I death hug all of you?":  
Zap "Oh heavens no."  
Windy "C'mere girl!"  
Light *smiles* "Of course!"  
FD *rolls his eyes*  
Grim "If only it wouldn't give you such misery..."  
**

**Rya= FD *smirks*  
Zap and Windy *Both nod and turn death glares over to FD*  
Zap *rolls his eyes at you* "Yeah, yeah, you told me so."  
Haha! That can be what it's called! xD Nice story title idea... but I think I'll keep this one. This one cost me some sleep :P  
Well, Light said she'd be back... I don't see why not *grins and gives you a reassuring thumbs up*  
**

**Raeweis= True true! If FD had killed Zap none of this would've ever happened... Without Father Darkness, Dimension Jumping wouldn't have ever happened because of Sierra Dimension Jumping to assist the Followers of Darkness in this dimension... that just looks confusing, hopefully I didn't lose you while saying that!  
**

**Chaos= Haha guest reviewing *takes a hat off* Still makes me laugh xD  
Zap *looks to you* "At least your internet is working again, right?" *looks to Chaos* "And that was only because you came barging in! Didn't Gerald teach you how to knock?" *reads the bottom note and shakes his head slowly* "Lil' Zippy?"  
That would be so cool... and weird... but cool if the Ohana met up one day. I could see myself being fashionably late or super early xD I happen to do that a lot. Never on time...  
Oh! Glad you liked it! Took me an entire day to write that story... I was on a roll haha.  
FD *smirks at you*  
**

**Storm= Ohmigosh yes *nod nod*  
FD *looks to Robyn seriously* "And that's coming from you. I wouldn't be talking if I were you."  
Haha! Well it seems to me that you liked the story.. even if FD was being a caudex at the end *cough as usual cough*  
Windy *grins sheepishly* "What! I always do that!"  
Zap *rolls his eyes* "All the time."  
Windy *looks to Zap seriously* "You're lucky to have a girl even look at you."  
Katherine *calls out from around the corner* "Buuuuurn."  
Zap *looks to Katherine* "What the heck are you doing here?!"  
Katherine *laughs and walks away while Windy also laughs*  
**

**Metal= Bi-Weekly inspirational speech? *looks to FD and falls over laughing*  
FD *scowls at you*  
Hey Metal! *waves*  
**

**Disclaimer= SEGA stuff belongs to SEGA (until I control it! -just kidding. It can't be done.) BlackStormNomad owns Aero, Robbers (xD Sonic told me to, sorry Robyn), and Kelly. Chaotic Hedgehog owns Chaos the hedgehog, as well as this cowboy hat *throws him the hat* Xsus took it from him. I own everything else...! And this cup of hot chocolate *takes a sip*  
**

**You've been warned...  
**

TIME= 17 HOURS 15 MINUTES

AREA= MYSTIC RUINS

YEAR= 5 YEARS IN THE FUTURE

Black. It was near nightfall. The sun was fading rapidly behind the jagged, hundreds of meters tall mountains. Trees that were covered with a thick blanket of snow sat in between the mountains and the ocean on the other side of the ruins.

Xerius' dark brown eyes narrowed as he looked down at the snow before bending down, his hand brushing aside part of the snowfall to reveal a dead civilian, blue from the freezing cold and pale because they didn't have any blood left in them. The two bite marks in their neck proved it as such and it caused the light brown cat with dark brown spots to growl quietly, showing his sharp teeth in the form of a snarl.

_"Aero..."_

"Xerius?"

Xerius' ears twitched and he glanced back in surprise to see a fifteen-year-old Xsus wandering towards him, his hands were in his pockets as he looked from the right to the left, inspecting the snowy ground. "Xerius, do you think Aero's around here?"

Xerius nodded, standing up straight and crossing his arms. With his brown boots, he gently pushed a mound of snow on the face of the dead man— or hedgehog considering that this was Mobius— so that Xsus couldn't see his lifeless pale blue eyes.

Xsus sighed as he shivered, his breath steaming in the cold air. He wondered how Xerius wasn't cold, maybe it was because of the revenge Xerius wanted to distribute to Aero was running through his veins. It was only two months earlier that the one of Aero's minions, a monster called Tee, killed Xerius' wife, Rouge and left Xerius alone to take care of their only child and son, Sorro.

However, the true reason that the duo were hunting down Aero was because it was their mission: to find where Aero was hiding— and if possible— kill him.

Aero was the cause of this terrible future. Chaos had died almost a year ago now and Maria died a month before Rouge did. Shade was on the dead list and each day, more people were found dead. It was only a matter of time before this planet was empty with only Aero and his evil army of failed ARK experiments took over the world.

_"Come on," _Xerius said, motioning Xsus to follow him and he turned tail before running through the forest again. Xsus shivered, rubbing his hands up and down his arms for a failed attempt to receive warmth before running after his adopted older brother.

The duo almost ran as silently as they could. Their shoes crunched the snow around them and the moon hung ominously in the sky high above them as the sun finally disappeared over the horizon. They bounced around, over fallen trees, rocks, half frozen streams, and snow mounds until suddenly, Xerius slid to a stop.

Xsus also tried to stop but failed as he hit a patch of ice, crashing into Xerius and then falling backwards since running into Xerius had the same exact results as running into a rock. He fell into the snow and instantly jumped to his feet, wiping the snow off of himself as fast as possible.

"It's _cold_!" Xsus shrieked then clamped his hands over his mouth as soon as he finished shrieking those two words. However, the damage had already been done, Xsus' voice echoed continuously through the empty cold of Mystic Ruins.

"Cold, you say?" A voice suddenly asked darkly, which caused Xerius to growl and Xsus to tense in fear, looking around as his ears twitched, trying to pinpoint the location of the voice, but failing as he looked. "Then you should've stayed home where the two of you belong. The snow is no place for... _children_."

Xerius' brown eyes narrowed as he flicked his wrists, extracting three wolverine style claws that stretched out a few good inches before bending over his clenched fists. The three knives/claws gleamed in the moonlight and Xerius lifted them up for the unknown enemy to see.

Xsus, on the other hand, looked down at the snow around him and lifted a hand, ready to use his hydrokenetic ability to call up the water from within the snow to use against the unseen enemy.

They heard movement behind them and the duo spun around to face... nothing. Except, they heard movement in the trees around them and Xerius glanced around, trying to find the owner of the voice, as did Xsus, but both were not sure what to expect.

"What are you two doing so far away from home? Have you come to surrender? To die? Oh, I can taste the fear in your blood now!" The voice continued, sounding amused by this fact. Their words sent chills up Xsus' spine as he slowly backed up to stand next to Xerius.

"Xerius...!" Xsus hissed to his ally. "What are we going to do?"

Xerius said nothing, as usual, but a plan was obviously calculating in his mind thanks to the way the silent warrior glanced around.

Suddenly, out of the nearby shadows, a dark colored hedgehog with neon green stripes running through his quills stepped into the moonlight. His black eyes showed no mercy as he showed a dark grin, revealing his sharp fangs. "Hello..." He said slowly.

"Aero!" Xsus growled, lifting his fists as Xerius stayed silent next to him.

"Ah!" Aero said amusedly. "If it isn't my two favorite friends: Hydro and Xerius! Do pray, how does the fair maiden vampiress do?"

Xsus scowled at his call name, Hydro (given to him by Father Darkness himself), and then stuck his tongue out at Aero's affection to the grey fox that all had made sure would not come on this mission, Robyn Prower. She was the older sister of Tails Prower and was turned into a vampire thanks to Aero himself.

_"That's none of your business," _Xerius growled, calling out to Aero telepathically since he rarely used his voice to speak in the first place thanks to a rough event in his past. _"We're here to destroy you."_

"Is that so?" Aero pouted, sad that the duo gave no information about Robyn. "Well then, it looks like it's no more time for small talk and make you... my dinner!" Aero lifted his hands as they suddenly glowed with dark energy and bared his teeth into a very terrifying smile before lunging at the duo.

Xerius growled before jumping in front of Xsus, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. With a clawed fist, Xerius shoved his fist into the side of Aero's face, his three dagger claws digging into it before making the dark hedgehog fly across the clearing before crashing into a tree, blood dripping down his face.

Aero wiped the blood off his face as he struggled back to his feet before liking it, smirking to himself slightly at the disgusted looks on Xerius and Xsus' faces alike. The dark hedgehog chuckled as his black eyes investigated the duo. "Hmm... I think it wouldn't be fair for it to be two against one. How about I make the fight more... even?"

Xerius growled, not liking his idea _at all_ but before he could do anything, Aero snapped and the monster who killed Rouge herself walked into the moonlight, causing the growl to deepen in Xerius' throat as he glared at the monster.

Tee was his name. He was a white tiger so he blended in easily with the snow and shadows around him. His yellow eyes almost matched Father Darkness' himself. He had a single claw that acted like Xerius' but was fatter on the flat side and looked more like a mini sword if anything. Xerius hissed at the tiger and the tiger let out a amused purr.

"Hello Xerius," He said, waving a hand/claw to his enemy. He was quiet for a moment before smirking and continuing. "Might I inform you that your wife tasted delicious? Too bad I couldn't nab your son too... he's a quick little devil, but I'll get him after I'm done with you."

Xerius hissed again as Xsus jumped forward and lifted a fist, getting out of his daze from the earlier attack with Aero. "You're not getting either of us, you hear?! We're gonna stop both of you right here and now!"

Tee chuckled and glanced over to Aero as he nodded slightly then the duo lunged at the two cats. Xerius lifted his claws and spun around to catch a stunned Aero by surprise by punching him again, minus the claws this time, and knocked him into another tree.

Xsus on the other hand, unfroze the snow around him and lifted a wall of water, smacking it into Tee's face and causing the monster to flip backwards and crash hard into the ground.

Xsus grinned at his seemed to be victory and quickly formed a katana out of the water, freezing it in his hands before narrowing his eyes as Tee spun around on the ground, his legs hitting Xsus' own and causing the golden cat to fall on his back. Tee quickly jumped to his feet before Xsus could react and stood above him, grinning darkly before being kicked away by Xerius.

Tee growled and looked at Xerius, his yellow eyes glowing in the darkness before lunging at him along with Aero, on the other side of the clearing causing a three way fight to break out with two trying to land a punch on Xerius.

Xsus scrambled to his feet and looked over at Xerius in surprise and winced when one of Tee's blades slashed at Xerius' stomach and blood poured out of the wound. "XERIUS!" Xsus cried as the warrior let out a gasp and fell to one knee as Tee and Aero jumped back to investigate the damage they gave to the silent warrior.

_"Xsus...!" _Xerius said, looking to the boy irritatedly while holding a hand to his bleeding stomach. _"Some help would be appreciated."_

"Oh right, sorry!" Xsus said with a weak chuckle as he charged into battle. He lunged at Tee and as the tiger lifted a claw to attack, Xsus blocked it with his icy sword, making a loud _clang_ echo through the battle field.

While Tee stared at Xsus' sword like he couldn't believe his claws were stopped by some frozen water, Xsus swung a fist and smashed it into the side of Tee's face. Tee flew into a neighboring tree as Xsus glanced back and yelped to see Aero tackling Xerius and the duo rolled around on the ground, each trying to hit the other.

Xsus was about to jump forward to help Xerius when suddenly, he felt something seem to appear behind him. Before the golden cat with ocean blue eyes could glance back, Tee grabbed both of Xsus' arms and pushed a claw against his neck. Xsus froze and looked at the claw gleaming in the moonlight in terror as it stood close to his throat.

"X-Xerius!" Xsus gasped and Xerius froze, about to use some of his energy to blast Aero away again before glancing over to the boy in surprise and his eyes widened when he saw the position Xsus was in. As he watched, Tee leaned in close to Xsus' face and used a pink tongue to lick up the side of Xsus' face, causing the small boy to whimper slightly.

_"Put him down Tee,"_Xerius said seriously, lifting his hands and glancing from Xsus' terrified face over to Tee. _"He didn't do anything to you."_

"What's that?" Tee asked as he smirked at the cat. "I couldn't hear what you were saying."

"I said PUT HIM DOWN!" Xerius yelled, actually using his real voice and causing Tee's eyes to widen in surprise. He quickly let go of Xsus, who quickly scrambled towards a nearby tree and breathed heavily with his back against it, trying to get his breath back.

Xsus and Xerius glanced at each other and relief shown in their eyes thanks to the fact that the other was safe for a moment. Pure relief and happiness.

Suddenly, Aero jumped forward and tackled Xerius once more while the warrior was distracted. Xerius let out a irritated hiss as Aero pushed Xerius to his knees on the ground with his hands wrapped around Xerius' head and forcing him to look at the ground, threatening to break his neck at any given moment.

Xsus' eyes widened in horror as Aero turned his evil black eyes up to the boy and smirked darkly. "Well? What are you going to do now, boy? You should've known better than to mess with the likes of _me_. Tee? May I ask for your assistance? I figure you should enjoy this much more than I will."

"Why certainly, my lord," Tee chuckled. He moved towards Xerius and Xsus wanted to jump forward and do something against Tee. Yell at him to stop, attack him, anything, but he found himself unable to move, frozen by terror of what was about to come.

"Xerius...?" Xsus managed to choke out after a moment of stunned silence but received no response from the silent warrior, not even a glance in his direction. Xsus felt tears suddenly form in his eyes as fear held him down, not letting him move.

Xerius hissed as Tee approached but went silent as Aero tightened his grip on the sides of his head. Tee smirked as Aero lifted Xerius' head to look up at the monster before him.

Xerius looked to the left slightly as Aero leaned next to his left ear. "Tell your wife I said hello for me. I would give you the pleasure of having me kill you myself... but why not have your wife's killer kill you? Oh I think that'd be a better way to send you to the afterlife."  
Xerius snarled at Aero's words but was silenced again as Aero's grip tightened even more on the sides of his head. He yanked Xerius' head backwards so that his neck was showing and nodded to Tee as the tiger lifted a claw while chuckling darkly.

Xsus closed his eyes tightly as he heard the sickening slash of Tee's claw and heard Xerius fall to the snowy ground as Aero let go of him. Xsus felt tears suddenly force their way out of his closed eyes before dripping down his face as he clamped his hands over his ears, begging everything in existence that this did not really happen. That he did not really hear those horrible sounds.

Xsus started screaming his adopted older brother's name after a moment of crying. Xerius wasn't supposed to get hurt! Xsus finally opened his eyes and glanced over with teary stained vision as he saw Xerius staring off at an unknown object with blood spilling out of the wound Tee made on his neck, slowly forming a puddle.

"Xerius!" Xsus screamed as Aero and Tee alike started laughing. Aero licked his lips as he saw the blood. It looked delicious, he couldn't wait to try it... oh if only Robyn was here. He wondered to himself if she would enjoy this blood herself. Maybe he could save some of this blood for later to use against her.

Tee laughed darkly as he glanced over at Xsus, yellow eyes glowing. "My lord, may I kill the child? It will be more fun for me and more blood for you."

Aero's eyes glowed at Tee's words and he chuckled while nodding his head. "Go ahead, Tee... I'll finish this one off."

"Xerius!" Xsus wailed, lifting his head to the sky. How could this have gone so very wrong? Xerius was dying, _dying_ and there was nothing he could do about it! Aero and Tee would kill him before he could get close to the dying warrior! What would Xerius had done? Would he turn into a savage monster and killed the two himself? Who knows... he might never get the chance to know now.

The golden cat's ears twitched when he heard the sound of snow crunching and glanced up and over to see Tee approaching him. Fear flew like wildfire throughout Xsus' body and he found himself unable to move once again as the tiger advanced onto him. Xsus could smell the salty scent of blood in the air and was almost positive it was only a matter of time before his own was mixed into the air as Tee moved towards the defenseless boy.

Tee took another step forward and Xsus started shaking in fear. What to do? Xsus couldn't even think straight, for the moment, he forgot that he could control water because of how scared and scatterbrained he was. He was going to die out here! He was going to leave Cream by herself... and what about his best friend, Kelly? Not even to mention the many others he owed so much too... he didn't even get to say goodbye.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xerius lying— probably dead— in the snow. What about Sorro? He would never know what happened to his dad.

Aero and Tee were going to get away with this. They were going to get away with this death like they were with so many others. It wasn't fair. Everything in Xsus' life wasn't fair. His mother had thrown him out, the people in the other dimension refused to help with this war, Xsus lost most of his best friends, and now? Now Xerius was dying before his very eyes because he was too scared to do anything about it. It wasn't fair. Nothing about this was fair.

Suddenly, as Xsus glanced up into Tee's yellow as eyes as the tiger bore down on him fearfully, he felt something deep within him snap, causing his eyes to widen. Sierra's words came back to him for a moment when he had once asked her why she had such dark emotions. _"Think of it as your heart shattering and nothing's there anymore. When Katherine lied to me in my home dimension, my heart shattered and nothing remained. All I could feel was hate... and a thirst for revenge that was sweater than the sugar you always crave to eat."_

Xsus now finally understood what Sierra was talking about. It was like his heart had suddenly snapped into a trillion pieces and nothing but hate and a want for revenge stayed left. Tee killed Xerius and Rouge. Aero killed Xerius, Chaos, and so many others. And both of them were going to pay dearly for what they had done, and that was final. Xsus' ocean blue eyes glowed with hatred as Tee advanced on the boy, obviously not seeing what had just happened to Xsus on the inside.

Suddenly, Xsus was gone and Tee looked around in surprise before he suddenly gagged. He looked down slowly at the ice katana sticking out of his chest before slowly looking back to the fifteen-year-old boy holding the sword, with a snarl on his face.

"W-What...?" Tee gasped as he stared at the sword.

"Go to **** already!" Xsus yelled and yanked the sword out of the monster's body. He turned around to face Aero as Tee's body fell to the snowy ground behind him with a thud.

Aero however, missed the entire thing. The dark vampire hedgehog was leaning over Xerius' body and was licking his lips. "I am _famished_...!"

"Xerius!" Xsus yelled and threw his sword at Aero.

Aero glanced over at the last moment and his eyes widened when he saw the ice katana flying towards his head. He ducked out of the way and stared as Xsus put the palms of his hands together and concentrated on his energy.

"What is this...?!" Aero started to yell but stopped short as Xsus' white blast exploded from his hands and knocked over a good acre of trees before him. Aero barely managed to avoid the blast by rolling away before jumping to his feet and hissing angrily. "How dare you!"

"HOW DARE ME?!" Xsus yelled, feeling all his rage, frustration, and misery pour out of his mouth as he spoke. "You have some _nerve_! Killing everyone I love, everyone I care about but no, you have no heart Aero, you hear? No heart. No wonder Robyn hates you. No wonder she wants you dead."

"Why you...!" Aero started to yell but was cut short as Xsus continued.

"Hmph, I bet there's no place in **** that's suitable for you." Xsus smirked darkly, a look that didn't match the rest of his face. "I bet even the devil's ashamed of you."

"Stop right there...!" Aero growled, taking a step forward. "Who do you think you are, coming here and mocking me?"

"Maybe you shouldn't of helped kill Xerius!" Xsus yelled and formed another ice katana out of the snow around him. He lifted it for Aero to see. "Now get the **** out of here before I distribute the same pain I gave to your friend to you!"

Aero glanced over at Tee's lifeless body before hissing and dissolving into darkness itself, finally leaving Xsus all by himself.

As soon as he was gone, Xsus turned and ran up to Xerius. He looked hopefully in the blank expression of the warrior's eyes before bending down and resting a head to his bloody chest. He listened for a minute... two... three... five... nothing. Xsus sat there for what seemed like hours, waiting for the heartbeat that would never come.

After a long while, the golden cat lifted his head away from Xerius' body and started sobbing, his heart felt like lead and was empty and cold. Tears dripped down his face and steamed when they hit the cold snow. His hot breath also steamed in the air as he sobbed before looking over to Xerius' cold body and crying harder. His whimpers and sniffling echoed in the cold, silent air as he cried. He didn't even get to say goodbye.

"Xerius..." Xsus moaned before looking up to the cold moon up in the sky. "I'm so... so sorry... maybe if I didn't act like such a kid in battle..."

Xsus cried for hours, up until the sun finally decided to rise again and surprisingly enough, Aero hadn't shown his face again once again that night, even with the blood on the battlefield around him. Xsus wiped his tear and blood stained face before finally standing and looking back to Xerius, with more tears dripping down his face.

Xsus made his final decision while crying. He was going to take over as a new Xerius at the base. He would take care of Sorro for Xerius, figuring that was probably what he would've asked him to do anyways. Xsus silently walked over and picked up Xerius' dead body before sniffling softly as he slowly rose into the morning sun, carrying the body with him.

-XXXXXXXX-

TIME= 06 HOURS 35 MINUTES

AREA= MYSTIC RUINS

YEAR= 5 YEARS IN THE FUTURE

"Move! Move!" Sorro said in his high pitched little three-year-old voice as he pushed his way through the crowd. He could hear stunned whispers echo through the crowd around him, which only sparked the interest of the little boy. Was dad home? Did Uncle Xsus make it out of the mission? Only one way to find out.

Suddenly, a gloved hand got in the way of his own and Sorro looked up in surprise into the crimson red eyes of Shadow the hedgehog himself, one of the few survivors left. The hedgehog shook his head no and Sorro frowned, wondering what was going on.

Sorro turned his attention towards the elevator where he saw a large gathering of people and some of the people were wailing. Around him, the crowd whispered, some throwing him pitiful glances and their words tore at Sorro.

"There he is..."

"Oh the poor kid..."

"Maybe he'll break..."

"Maybe he'll die from being abandoned."

Sorro didn't know what these people were talking about, he was only three.

After a moment, Sorro pushed Shadow's hand away and ran up to the crowd, pushing through everyone until he saw Xsus standing before the elevator doors leading into the Underground City holding a familiar body in his hands. His face was still wet from the tears and he was covered in scrapes and bruises.

Kelly, Robyn, Sonic, Sierra, and many other familiar faces glanced over to the boy in surprise as Sorro's eyes stared at Xerius' body in confusion.

"Daddy...?"

Xsus bit back the tears tempting to come again as Sorro walked up slowly and poked his father's arm, wondering why he wasn't moving. He looked up at Xsus with big eyes. "Hydro... what happened to daddy...?"

Tears finally dripped down Xsus' face once more and he shook his head no. It was then when Sorro finally understood. He lost his mother earlier that year. Even if he was young, he still understood what death meant and how horrible it was.

Xerius was gone forever.

And both Hydro and Sorro never recalled crying so hard in their lives.

**...scene.**

**Please review and I'll probably update again on Unknown Story (or maybe this one..?) soon!  
**


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